322 a short history of the united states
administration—of which he had been an important part— for the
prosperous years in which surpluses in running the government helped
reduce the national debt. Even so, he won a majority of the pop ular
vote, garnering several hundred thousand more votes than Bush. But
the electoral vote was so close that a battle resulted over the Florida
returns. It seems that voting irregularities and malfunctioning voting
machines produced punch-card ballots that occasionally carried what
was called a “hanging chad,” which confused both machine and human
counters. Gore supporters demanded a recount in selected counties
where the outcome was in dispute. But the Republican secretary of
state halted the recount and declared Bush the winner of Florida’s
votes. Gore’s lawyers asked the Florida supreme court for a ruling, and
this court ordered the recount to resume. Whereupon the Bush lawyers
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled, by a partisan vote of
5 to 4 on December 12 , that the recount be halted. With Florida now in
the Bush column he had 271 electoral votes to 267 for Gore. It is also
likely that the candidacy of Ralph Nader drew many votes away from
Gore, votes that might have reversed the final result and put the Vice
President in the White House. Nationwide, Nader polled two and a
ha l f m i l l ion votes. In F lor ida he capt u red over 95 , 000 votes, just enough
to throw the state to Bush.
Because of his own several disappointments in business and lim-
ited experience in government, Bush chose Dick Cheney as his running
mate, a staunch conservative who enjoyed a successful career as a mem-
ber of the House of Representatives and had joined the Republican
leadership team in the lower chamber where he was elected minority
whip. He might have gone on to win the office of Speaker had he not
accepted the post of secretary of defense in the first Bush administra-
tion. No doubt with the younger Bush’s encouragement, Cheney soon
became a potent force within the new administration in deciding na-
tional policy. One of the most infl uential Vice Presidents in American
history, he exercised almost as much power in foreign and domestic af-
fairs as did the President. Together, these two men helped solidify ex-
ecutive authority and privilege. Bush also brought to the White House
as an adviser Karl Rove, the man he called the “architect,” who planned