Color photograph of George W. Bush's head on a black background with white text

The United States Presidential Election of 2000 between George W. Bush and Al Gore, the Supreme Court’s decision on Bush v. Gore, and the inauguration of Republican President Bush that followed are points of contention in democracy’s recent history. One of the closest elections in United States history, no official winner was declared on election night. When Florida’s votes were finally counted, the margin was so small that law required a recount of the votes. During the following month, several counties from Florida had to manually recount all votes. Bush v. Gore was the United States Supreme Court case to settle to recount dispute. While the election took place on November 7, 2000, the court ruling and outcome of the election were not decided until December 12, 2000. Although Al Gore had won the popular vote with 50,999,897 votes and 48.4% of the total votes cast, George W. Bush was announced the winner because he had 271 of the electoral votes, which is 1 more than the majority. The reason the recount had been so important in Florida was because the recount could have potentially tipped the number of electoral votes in favor of Al Gore, winning him the presidential election.
Many people were outraged by the Supreme Court decision claiming that the court had chosen their president and not the people’s votes. This spurred a group of more than 20,000 protestors to gather for Bush’s inauguration. There were approximately 10,000 law enforcement officials on Pennsylvania Avenue on the day of the inauguration. The number of law enforcement officers outnumbered the protestors in the actual demonstration area near the inauguration. Security for entering all areas was much tighter than previous inaugural days.

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Black and white photograph of the band with black text above on a white background

One of the most popular pop music groups of the 1960s was the all-female group The Shangri-Las. The group was formed when two groups of sisters, Mary and Elizabeth Weiss, and identical twins Marguerite and Mary Ann Ganser got together while attending high school in Queens, New York. They chose their name after a restaurant in Queens. The girls were all minors when they signed their first record deal with Red Bird Records. Throughout their career they would play with such notables as Billy Joel, The Rolling Stones, the Beatles, The Drifters and James Brown. Two of their most famous singles are “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” and “Leader of the Pack”.

Blue, white and pinkish illustration of the Go Go's from their album cover Beauty and the Beat

The Go-Go’s are an American rock group that formed in 1978 and were famous in the early 1980’s. They were most notable for being an all-female group that wrote and played their own music. In 1981 their debut album, Beauty and the Beat reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and remained there for six weeks in a row. The Go-Go’s disbanded in 1985 but have continued to perform together throughout the 1990’s and the present.