User:Postdlf/election
This is a list of court cases in the United States that involved disputed elections.
| Case | Court | Election in dispute |
|---|---|---|
| Attorney General ex. rel. Bashford v. Barstow, 4 Wis. 567 (1856) | Wisconsin Supreme Court | Governor of Wisconsin, 1855 |
| Democrat incumbent Governor William A. Barstow was initially declared the winner of the 1855 election by a mere 157 votes over Republican Coles Bashford. However, Bashford claimed the result was fraudulent, and it was later discovered that Barstow's win depended on forged election returns from nonexistent precincts in the sparsely populated northern part of the state, in addition to other irregularities such as two separate canvassing boards claiming legitimacy in Waupaca County. After rival ceremonies swore both candidates in separately, the Wisconsin attorney general filed quo warranto proceedings in the Wisconsin Supreme Court to remove Barstow, who threatened that he would not "give up his office alive." Barstow challenged the court's jurisdiction without success. Noting that the tide of public opinion had turned against him, Barstow declined to contest the fraud allegations and sent his resignation to the legislature on March 21, 1856, leaving the lieutenant governor, Arthur MacArthur, as acting governor. On March 24, the court unanimously awarded the governorship to Bashford by a count of 1,009 votes. | ||
| Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000) | Supreme Court of the United States | President of the United States, 2000 |
| A statewide recount in Florida was proceeding to determine the winner of the state's 25 electoral votes, which would in turn determine the winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Vice President and Democratic candidate Al Gore filed suit to prevent certification of the results and force a manual recount, and Republican candidate George W. Bush, who was initially declared the winner by an extremely narrow margin, opposed the recount. Following numerous state court decisions, a 7-2 majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the ballot recount should stop due to the lack of a consistent standard. A 5-4 majority further declared in a per curiam opinion that there was insufficient time to establish standards for a new recount that would meet Florida's deadline for certifying electors. This stopped the recount and allowed Florida Secretary of State (and Bush's Florida campaign co-chair) Katherine Harris to certify Bush as the winner of Florida's electoral votes, giving him a majority of the electoral college and the Presidency. | ||
| Big Spring v. Jore, 109 P.3d 219 (Mont. 2005) | Montana Supreme Court | Montana House of Representatives, 2004 |
| The court ruled 6-1 that seven double-punched ballots in an extremely close election for a seat in the Montana House of Representatives should not have been counted, because ballots were only valid under state law if the voter's intent could be clearly determined. The invalidation of those seven votes gave the election to Democrat Jeanne Windham, whose win gave the Democrats the one seat they needed to have a majority in the Montana House. Had the trial court's counting of those votes been upheld, her opponent, Rick Jore, would have been the first Constitution Party candidate to have won an election at the state level. | ||