Here is what was actually concluded:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.htmlFlorida Court Standards:
Using the NORC data, the media consortium examined what might have happened if the U.S. Supreme Court had not intervened. The Florida high court had ordered a recount of all undervotes that had not been counted by hand to that point. If that recount had proceeded under the standard that most local election officials said they would have used, the study found that Bush would have emerged with 493 more votes than Gore. Gore's own standard:
Suppose that Gore got what he originally wanted -- a hand recount in heavily Democratic Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade and Volusia counties. The study indicates that Gore would have picked up some additional support but still would have lost the election -- by a 225-vote margin statewide.Now this was a very close election, the only way that Gore "wins" is that if you count people who voted for two or more candidates, or you count people whose intent was not clearly manifested.
Now, I would have
favored a statewide recount, but Gore didn't, at least at first. I really would
not favor giving one person two votes for President in the same election.
