Justice David Souter said he favoured giving the Florida electoral authorities a chance to establish a uniform standard

Justice David Souter said he favoured giving the Florida electoral authorities a chance to establish a uniform standard of counting. Ruth Bader-Ginsburg called the obsession with deadlines "misplaced". "In sum," she concluded, "the court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the presidency of the United States.". When this unbelievable US presidential election finally passes into history, what image will best convey its madness? When this unbelievable US presidential election finally passes into history, what image will best convey its madness? Security vans under police escort ferrying a million ballot papers to Tallahassee, with television news helicopters in pursuit as if the quarry were O J Simpson? Or the fearsome Katherine Harris, Florida's Secretary of State and Dallas powerdame, awarding her state's electoral college votes to George W Bush? Or the Republican rent-a-mob that cowed the Miami-Dade officials into halting a manual recount that might have tipped matters Gore's way?Or the saga of hanging, dimpled and sundry other chads, which propelled a hitherto unknown four-letter word into the global political lexicon? Or the sad spectacle of the US Supreme Court split on political lines, as it delivered the first ruling in its history to decide a presidential election? Or the parallel transition arrangements of the two candidates, only one of whom could be President?Or the moment, at 3.30am on 8 November, when the lunacy could truly be said to have begun? That was when Al Gore called Mr Bush to withdraw the concession he had made a little earlier, on the basis of the second wrong call on Florida by the networks that night. "Let me be sure I understand you," his aides recorded the Governor of Texas as saying.

"You're calling to retract your concession?" To which Mr Gore immortally replied: "Don't get snippy about it" - provoking another stampede of etymologists searching for the origin of a US synonym for short-tempered first recorded in 1848.So maybe Election 2000 will be remembered as the "snippy" election - though snippiness understated the ferocity of exchanges between the two sides and their armies of lawyers during the fraught, unbelievable weeks that followed."It's an amazing story," Al Gore admitted on 30 November as his lawyers did the rounds of Florida courts trying to get the manual recounts restarted, just as those of Mr Bush were trying to persuade the Supreme Court in Washington to rule against them. "Amazing" was another understatement.Everyone knew it would be close. But no one could have predicted what followed: the first election since 1888 in which the losing candidate won the popular vote, and in the case of Florida an effective tie.Florida was not the only cliffhanger that split the country down the middle. There was Cedar County in Iowa - where 4,025 people voted for Mr Bush and 4,025 for Mr Gore - and the entire state of New Mexico, which (at the last count) Mr Gore had carried by 368 votes out of more than 600,000 cast.

Yet in terms of suspense, Florida beat the lot: a mechanical count win on the night for Mr Bush by 1,738 votes, reduced to 930 in a recount (also mechanical). Then came the final certified result, announced by Ms Harris on 26 November - and incorporating a segment of the manual recounts in three counties. Mr Bush's majority had shrunk to 537 votes, and then again to 154 when the Florida Supreme Court - for a few hours on 8 December - ordered manual recounts to proceed on thousands of ballot papers with those disputed chads. In the event that would prove almost the end of the story, as the US Supreme Court reversed the decision the next morning.By 15 November, a week after the election, the lawyers had initiated a dozen court actions, and some of the country's most illustrious legal brains were in action, among them David Boies, who had led the Government's anti-trust case against Microsoft, and Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard professor and veteran of the OJ saga. A separate Republican appeal, meanwhile, was already before the Supreme Court in Washington.Although the Democrats boasted lawyers, the Republicans had the officials who mattered most: Jeb Bush - their man's brother and by co-incidence Florida's Governor - and Ms Harris, the state official in ultimate charge of running the election and an unconditional devotee of the Bush political dynasty.After a week's legal wrangling in the lower courts, Florida's High Court ordered Ms Harris to allow recounts but allowed the counties just five days. Five hours after the expiry of the deadline on 26 November, she certified the results received. Her decision created a new dynamic, much trickier for Mr Gore.

No longer was he trying to prevent something happening, the Vice-President now had to reverse something. He faced the task of keeping his case in the public eye, while not giving increasingly impatient Americans the impression he was just a bad loser. To an extent he succeeded in walking this public opinion tightrope. But gradually his cause eroded - polls showed the number of Americans who judged it more important to secure a fair and accurate result (the Gore argument) than to get a swift conclusion (as Mr Bush insisted) dropping from more than 70 per cent to less than 50 per cent by early December.Mr Gore desperately required a large, easily comprehensible, legal victory to keep the fight alive beyond 12 December - when Florida's electoral college was to be officially settled. However, on 4 December, the US Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, overturned the Florida court's decision to extend time for the recounts, effectively restoring the Bush lead to 930 votes.But the final victory came a week later, as the country's highest court halted Florida's recounts In the end, time simply ran out for Mr Gore. Ultimately, the national yearning for closure was too strong.

The evidence was that if all ballots had been fully counted, more Floridians on 7 November voted - or at least intended to - for him than for Mr Bush.This election proved that a passion for democratic accountability can be too much of a good thing. The vigour and combativeness of the American system is due in large part to the fact that so many officials, judges and administrators are elected and thus have, or are perceived to have, a political allegiance.. Message to Florida - please settle down now and get back to what you are supposed to do - cocooning seniors in balmy breezes, serving margaritas and tending theme parks Holding America hostage for a month is not your job. Message to Florida - please settle down now and get back to what you are supposed to do - cocooning seniors in balmy breezes, serving margaritas and tending theme parks. Holding America hostage for a month is not your job. But what else did we expect? All year the candidates flattered Florida to death, working harder than in any other state. It began the day Al Gore saw the lie in the notion that Florida was locked up for George W Bush, and realised that even with little brother Jeb in the Governor's mansion, it could fall to the Democrats.So when election day came, and America was meant to move from campaign to transition, Florida decided it had enjoyed itself far too much to allow the game to end.