ome state, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Indiana, and was expected to carry the solid South and most of the West. Both Tilden and his Republican challenger, Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, were assuming that the Democrats had captured the White House. Tilden had won the popular vote, with 4,284,020 (51%) to Hayes's 4,036,572 (48%), a margin of less than 250,000. The only thing that mattered, though, was the Electoral College count, and there, Tilden's 184 electoral votes were one short of a majority, while Hayes's 165 electoral votes left him 20 ballots shy of the presidency. The remaining 20 electoral votes were in dispute: one from Oregon and 19 from the three Southern states that still retained.
             With respect to the Twelfth Amendment, which indicates, "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted' the Democrats and the Republicans set up an electoral commission to decide who would become president. The Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats to sit on the commission, and the House chose two Democrats and three Republicans. The remainder of the commission was to consist of five justices of the Supreme Court. This was how the presidential dispute was resolved.
             After some decades the dispute aroused again. George W. Bush v. Albert Gore as many believed decided the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election between Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.
             The problem began in Florida where the election results where too close to tell. Although Bush received 1,784 more votes than Gore in Florida, the margin was small enough to trigger an automatic machine recount under Florida law. The machine recount reduced Bush's lead. Nevertheless Gore exercised his statutory right to request manual recounts in four counties. Time, however, was as issue. Could these recounts be cond...