{"id":389791,"date":"2026-09-04T00:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389791\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T00:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T00:10:10","slug":"tallahassee-judge-known-for-presiding-over-2000-election-recount-dies-at-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389791\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallahassee judge known for presiding over 2000 election recount dies at 84"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee judge who played a pivotal role in Florida\u2019s hotly contested presidential election in 2000 has died. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sanders Sauls passed away last week at the age of 84.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He served on the Circuit bench for more than 20 years but is perhaps best known for presiding over the Bush v. Gore recount case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">That same case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Tallahassee judge Sanders Sauls was best known for presiding over the 2000 Presidential...\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TG6ALBSQONCIZCNX4776XYPAFM.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Tallahassee judge Sanders Sauls was best known for presiding over the 2000 Presidential Election recount case in Florida.(WCTV)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Barry Richard was one of the attorneys who argued that case in front of Judge Sauls. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt was the main case in Florida and Sauls did an excellent job,\u201d Richard said. \u201cIt was a difficult case, I think, for a judge to preside over because you had the entire world watching and the courtroom was packed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Richard described Sauls as both folksy and respected. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe ran a very disciplined courtroom, but he wasn\u2019t stern,\u201d Richard said. \u201cHe treated everybody respectfully &#8230; and he never got rattled by what was going on around us which was non-stop craziness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Barry Richard was one of the attorneys who argued the recount case in front of Judge Sanders...\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/FTQFJAWVRJBARMJQF4TAKLGFNI.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" \/>Barry Richard was one of the attorneys who argued the recount case in front of Judge Sanders Sauls.(WCTV)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Sauls served on the Second Circuit Court from October 1989 until August 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cHe served the Second Judicial Circuit faithfully and with fairness for more than two decades,\u201d current Second Circuit Chief Judge Frank Allman said in a statement Thursday. \u201cJudge Sauls applied his intellect and integrity to every case he handled. We will miss him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.charlesmcclellanfh.com\/obituaries\/N-Sanders-Sandy-Sauls?obId=49418407#\/obituaryInfo\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.charlesmcclellanfh.com\/obituaries\/N-Sanders-Sandy-Sauls?obId=49418407#\/obituaryInfo\">According to his obituary<\/a>, Sauls\u2019 graveside services and celebration of life were held on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/09\/03\/tallahassee-judge-known-presiding-over-2000-election-recount-dies-84\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; A Tallahassee judge who played a pivotal role in Florida\u2019s hotly contested presidential election&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[155906,155909,155907,155908,232,234,52764,233],"class_list":["post-389791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-election-2000","tag-judge-sanders-sauls","tag-presidential-election-recount-2000","tag-sanders-sauls","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-judge","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}