https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news...297-story.html
Under intense pressure from Republicans in the closest presidential election in American history, Florida officials accepted hundreds of absentee ballots from overseas that did not comply with state election laws, a six-month investigation by The New York Times has found.
In an analysis of the 2,490 ballots from Americans living abroad that were counted as legal votes after Election Day, the Times found 680 questionable votes. Although it is not known for whom the flawed ballots were cast, four out of five were accepted in counties carried by George W. Bush, the Times found. Bush's final margin in the official total was 537 votes.
While just a fraction of nearly 6 million votes cast in Florida, the 2,490 overseas votes that arrived after Nov. 7 ultimately swung the election to Bush.
Had this small but decisive pool of ballots been excluded -- and had only ballots cast and received by Election Day been counted -- Vice President Al Gore would have beaten Bush by 202 votes, according to the Nov. 7 certified vote totals published by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.