Husband of former FL Sec. State Katherine Harris commits suicide

[Divernan]

111. You're right; she was Bush's Florida co-campaign chairman.

Main article: United States presidential election in Florida, 2000

As Secretary of State for the State of Florida (and co-chair of Bush's Florida election efforts), Harris was a central figure in the 2000 US presidential election in Florida. Harris certified that the Republican candidate, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush, had defeated the Democratic candidate, then-Vice President Al Gore, in the popular vote of Florida and thus certified the Republican slate of electors. The margin separating Bush from Gore was 537 votes. Harris ordered a halt after several recounts. Her ruling was upheld in the state circuit court, but was subsequently overturned on appeal by the Florida Supreme Court. That decision was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. In a per curiam decision, by a 7-2 vote, the Court in Bush v. Gore held that the Florida Supreme Court's method for recounting ballots was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. By a 5–4 vote, the Court held that no alternative method could be established within the time limits set by the State of Florida. Three of the concurring justices also asserted that the Florida Supreme Court had violated Article II, § 1, cl. 2 of the Constitution, by misinterpreting Florida election law that had been enacted by the Florida Legislature.

The decision allowed Harris's previous certification of Bush as the winner of Florida's electoral votes to stand. Florida's 25 electoral votes gave Bush, the Republican candidate, 271 electoral votes, defeating Gore, who ended up with 266 electoral votes (with one D.C. elector abstaining).

Harris later wrote Center of the Storm, her own memoir of the 2000 election controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Harris