U.S Congress formally certified Saturday that George W. Bush won last year's extraordinary presidential election

U.S Congress formally certified Saturday that George W. Bush won last year's extraordinary presidential election as defeated Vice President Gore presided over the session, announcing the results after House Democrats objected futilely to counting Florida's votes. There was no suspense over the outcome because not a single senator joined the House members in their formal objections, as required under the law. As a result, Republican Bush kept Florida's 25 electoral votes and defeated Democrat Gore by 271-266 in the Electoral College. Saturday's joint session of Congress was a constitutional formality to ratify the count of the electoral votes that was initially made on Dec. 18 in every state capital. To prevail, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 electoral votes of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia. House Democrats, mostly blacks, offered 20 objections aimed at blocking the certification of Florida's votes. But time after time, Gore - at turns serious and with humor - turned them down because of the lack of signatures by senators. That reflected a judgment by many Democrats that it was long past time to end the battling over the election outcome.