Al Gore was a candidate for president.
The Florida election recount of 2000 was a period of vote recounting in Florida that occurred during the weeks after Election Day in the 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore . Al Gore . At the end of Clinton 's second term , Gore was picked as the Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential election . In the 2000 presidential election , in what was one of the closest presidential races in history , Gore won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush . A controversial election dispute over a vote recount in Florida was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court , which ruled 5 -- 4 in favor of Bush .