On election night, the vote was so close that no winner could be declared. Florida's 25 electoral votes would determine the outcome of the election. A machine recount declared Bush the winner of Florida's vote, but Gore supporters wanted the votes in four counties recounted by hand. The Bush campaign challenged this manual recount, and eventually the Supreme Court ruled that manual recounts could not ensure all votes would be counted the same way. The court stopped the recount, and Florida's electoral votes went to Bush. Bush became president of the United States, although Gore had won the popular vote.