Voters go to the polls to elect their 43rd president. At 7:49 p.m., EST, NBC is the first television network to name Al Gore the winner of Florida. The other three networks soon follow suit. At 10 p.m., CBS is the first network to retract the call.

At 2:16 a.m., the Fox Network’s Decision Desk, managed by George W. Bush’s first cousin John Ellis, calls the presidential race for Bush. At 4:05 a.m., the call is retracted. By late morning, Bush’s nearly 6 million-vote lead is reduced to 1,784 votes. Neither candidate concedes.

Gore asks for a hand count of presidential ballots in Volusia, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

Bush sues in federal court to stop manual recounts in these counties.

Volusia County files suit in Leon County Circuit Court seeking to extend the Tuesday deadline for a final vote count.

Florida’s secretary of state, Katherine Harris, says she will not extend the 5 p.m. November 14 deadline for certifying election results.

U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks refuses to stop manual recounts in Florida.

Palm Beach County seeks advisory opinions from the Division of Elections, which is under the secretary of state, and from the Florida attorney general to determine if it should proceed with a hand count.

Bush appeals Judge Middlebrooks’s ruling to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

Secretary of State Harris sets a deadline for November 15 at 2 p.m. for counties seeking a manual recount to submit a written justification.

Leon County Judge Terry Lewis denies the request for an injunction and upholds the Florida deadline to submit election results by 5 p.m., but rules that counties may notify the secretary of state that recounts are pending, and are allowed to continue recounting and to file updated or corrected returns.

After receiving conflicting advisory opinions, Palm Beach County asks the Florida Supreme Court if it should proceed with the hand count.

The Florida Supreme Court denies Secretary of State Harris’s motion to halt manual counting of ballots. Harris says she will not accept results of any hand recounts when it is time to certify the Florida vote on November 18.

Gore files an emergency motion in state court to prevent Secretary of State Harris from certifying the results until the manual recounts have been completed.

The Florida Supreme Court issues an interim order that Palm Beach County can proceed with a manual recount of ballots.

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals denies Bush’s request to stop manual recounts on constitutional grounds.

Leon County Judge Lewis rules that Secretary of State Harris’s decision to exclude hand-recounted votes was not an abuse of discretion and allows the decision to stand.

The Florida Supreme Court orders Harris not to certify the Florida vote until it can rule on whether hand recounts will be added to the final tally.

The Florida Supreme Court unanimously rules that state election officials must include the results of manual recounts in Florida’s final presidential tally.

Palm Beach County Judge Jorge Labarga rules that election officials must consider dimpled chad ballots.

Miami-Dade County Canvassing Board stops the recount of ballots.

Bush files a certiorari petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the Court to block the Florida Supreme Court decision allowing hand counts.

Florida Supreme Court declines to order Miami-Dade County to resume recounting ballots.

The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Bush’s appeal of the November 21 decision of the Florida Supreme Court.

Secretary of State Harris announces the certified vote totals with a 537 vote lead for Bush, thereby ending the protest phase and beginning Florida’s contest phase.

Gore files a complaint in Leon County Court to contest the election.

Leon County Judge N. Sanders Sauls orders the 14,000 ballots contested by Gore to be brought to his courtroom along with the voting booths and tabulation machines.

A committee of the Florida legislature votes to recommend a special session with the intent of selecting its own slate of presidential electors.

Gore asks the Florida Supreme Court to order an immediate hand recount of the disputed ballots.

In the U.S. Supreme Court, Democrats challenge the right of Florida’s legislature to select their own presidential electors.

Oral argument in the case of Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board is presented in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Florida Supreme Court affirms the decision of the Palm Beach Circuit Court that the butterfly-ballot design did not disenfranchise voters.

The U.S. Supreme Court vacates the decision of the Florida Supreme Court, ordering it to clarify its definition of a legal standard for recounts.

Leon County Judge Sauls rules that the vote tally for Nassau County should remain unchanged and that hand recounts of disputed ballots are not needed in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

The Eleventh Circuit Court denies Bush’s request for an injunction to stop manual recounts in four Florida counties.

The Florida Supreme Court overturns Leon County Judge Sauls’s decision to reject Gore’s request for a recount of the undervote in a few Florida counties and orders the recount to begin immediately.

The U.S. Supreme Court stays the Florida recount. Justice Scalia, in a concurring opinion, writes that “[t]he counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to [George Bush], and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election. Count first, and rule upon legality afterwards, is not a recipe for producing election results that have the public acceptance democratic stability requires.”

The U.S. Supreme Court reverses the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court in Gore v. Harris. The recounts are halted. Justice Stevens in his dissent writes: “Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judges as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”

The Florida Supreme Court issues an opinion on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, writing: “Accordingly, pursuant to the direction of the United States Supreme Court, we hold appellants can be afforded no relief.”