Why Florida decided it

The Federal Election Commission’s state-results table records Florida at 2,912,790 votes for George W. Bush and 2,912,253 for Al Gore: a difference of 537. Ralph Nader received 97,488. The table’s Florida total is 5,963,110 recorded presidential votes. That makes the Bush–Gore margin about 0.009 percent of that total. [1]

The denominator matters. Those are recorded votes for candidates, not a claim that every ballot cast contained a valid presidential vote. A ballot can fail to register a presidential choice while still counting in other races. Nor does a certified margin measure the number of people affected by registration errors or confusing instructions. [1][2]

Certification supplies the official result under the process that was completed. It does not convert unresolved marks into known intentions. With a margin this narrow, several distinct failures could be consequential. Determining that a failure existed and determining exactly how the result would change after correcting it are separate tasks.

Gore received 543,895 more votes nationally than Bush, a difference acknowledged even in the archived White House biography of Bush. But the presidency was determined through state electoral votes, not by adding all presidential votes into one national contest. [1][2]

Florida had 25 electoral votes in 2000. Its certified result put those votes in Bush’s column. The final Electoral College tally was Bush 271, Gore 266. One District of Columbia elector cast a blank ballot, which explains why accounts sometimes give Gore 267 pledged electors but only 266 votes actually cast for him. [2]

This distinction explains the constitutional outcome; it does not settle whether the Florida process was fair. It also does not make the national popular-vote margin fraudulent or imaginary. Both statements can be true: more Americans recorded a vote for Gore, and Bush received the electoral majority that made him president. The recount controversy concerned the allocation of Florida’s electors, where the count was extraordinarily close. [1][2]