Why is the 2000 Presidential election so controversial?

The 2000 election was between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, as well as several independent candidates. The election was controversial in the sense that no candidate won the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election outright; this controversy was caused by a faulty Florida ballot. Some people who meant to vote for another candidate really had their votes counted for George W. Bush. There was also the question of the punch cards used in the balloting process; when the election was under review, the public saw the sloppy ballots; the term "hanging chad" entered popular vocabulary that fall. When the lower courts ruled that George W. Bush won Florida and thus the election, Al Gore's campaign team challenged the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, where he ultimately lost. While Al Gore won the popular vote, George W. Bush won the electoral vote due to the Florida ballot, and soon many election commissioners began to look into digital ballots.