Changes

In recent history, the messy process of transition between presidents was most felt as a consequence of the 2000 election. That election was ultimately resolved when the Supreme Court ruled to halt the Florida recount, leading to Gore conceding in December 13, 2000. That meant that the formal transition from Clinton to Bush in 2000-2001 had only one month, among the shortest transitions in presidential history. Ultimately, after the 9/11 disaster, the 9/11 Commission concluded that this slow transition and limited time in preparation and sharing of information likely "hampered" the Bush administration's ability to put key people in national security roles. Given the lessons learned, the Bush administration made a concerted effort to quickly accept Obama's 2008 election victory so that the transition could be done quickly and without problems. The incoming Obama administration was able to gain access to classified and other information that enabled them to access different branches of the government, which also facilitated their response to the 2008 financial crisis. This helped to ensure that national security data, in particular, could be shared within a day after Obama was declared the winner. With this lesson, Obama also made a point to enable an easy transition to Trump's presidency, inviting the president-elect two day after the November 2016 election. As of November 22, 2020, the Trump administration has yet to concede the results of the November 3 election. This has been the first election since the 1933 transition to Roosevelt that the incumbent administration has worked to impede a transition to the next president. One difference is that Hoover did not do this publicly and there were limited processes that established a formal transition. Since the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, only the 2000 and 2020 elections took more than two days to enable the GSA to formally start the transition process to the incoming administration.