U.S. presidential election, 2000

The U.S. presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest elections in U.S. history, decided by only 527 votes in the swing state of Florida. On election night, the media prematurely declared a winner twice based on exit polls before finally conceding that the Florida race was too close to call. It would turn out to be a month before the election was finally certified after numerous court challenges and recounts. Republican candidate George W. Bush won Florida's 25 electoral votes by a razor-thin margin of the popular vote there, and thereby defeated Democratic candidate Al Gore.

General election

Campaign

In the campaign, Bush criticized the Clinton administration policy in Somalia, where 18 Americans died in 1993 trying to sort out warring factions, and in the Balkans, where U.S. peacekeeping troops perform a variety of functions. "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building," Bush said in the second presidential debate.

Related Topics:
Somalia - 1993 - Presidential debate

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nader was the most successful of third party candidates, drawing 2.74% of the popular vote. His campaign was marked by a traveling tour of "super-rallies"; large rallies held in sports arenas like Madison Square Garden, with filmmaker Michael Moore as master of ceremonies. After initially ignoring Nader, the Gore campaign made a big publicity pitch to (potential) Nader supporters in the final weeks of the campaign, downplaying Gore's differences with Nader on the issues and claiming that Gore's ideas were more similar to Nader's than Bush's were, noting that Gore had a better chance of winning than Nader. On the other side, the Republican Leadership Council ran pro-Nader ads in a few states in a likely effort to split the "left" vote.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001027/aponline115918_000.htm In the aftermath of the campaign, many Gore supporters blamed Nader for drawing enough would-be Gore votes to push Bush over Gore, labeling Nader a "spoiler" candidate.

Related Topics:
Madison Square Garden - Michael Moore - Republican Leadership Council - "spoiler" candidate

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Disputes

The outcome of the November 7 election was not known for more than a month after the balloting, because of the extended process of counting and then recounting of Florida presidential ballots, which would ultimately decide the election. State results tallied on election night gave 246 electoral votes to Bush and 255 to Gore, with New Mexico (5), Oregon (7), and Florida (25) too close to call at the time. Since 270 electoral votes are required to win, Florida would put either candidate over the top, and the other two states were irrelevant. (Both New Mexico and Oregon were declared in favor of Gore over the next few days, making it 246-267.)

Related Topics:
November 7 - New Mexico - Oregon - Florida

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bush won the election night vote count in Florida by a little over 1000 votes. Florida state law provided for an automatic recount due to the small margins. There were general concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the voting process, especially since a small change in the vote count could change the result. The final (and disputed) official Florida count gave the victory to Bush by 537 votes, making it the tightest race of the campaign (at least in percentage terms; New Mexico was decided by 363 votes but has a much smaller population, meaning those 363 votes represent a 0.061% difference while the 537 votes in Florida are just 0.009%).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Gore campaign lodged a complaint over the state's election results, requesting that disputed ballots in four counties be counted by hand. However, the Bush campaign filed suit against the manual recounts. During the recounting process, the Bush campaign hired George H. W. Bush's former Secretary of State James Baker to oversee the legal process, and the Gore campaign hired Bill Clinton's former Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Numerous local court rulings went both ways, some ordering recounts because the vote was so close and others declaring that a selective manual recount in a few heavily-Democratic counties would be unfair. Eventually, the Gore campaign appealed to the Florida Supreme Court which ordered the recounting process to proceed. The Bush campaign subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) which took up the case Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board on December 1. On December 4, the SCOTUS returned this matter to the Florida Supreme Court for clarification due to their "considerable uncertainty" as to the reasons for certain aspects of the decision. The Florida Supreme Court clarified their ruling on this matter while the US Supreme Court was deliberating Bush v. Gore, and the two cases were then combined, with SCOTUS approving by 6-3 the Florida court's actions in the original case based on the clarifications provided.

Related Topics:
George H. W. Bush - Secretary of State - James Baker - Bill Clinton - Warren Christopher - Supreme Court of the United States - December 1 - December 4 - Bush v. Gore

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court, by a 4 to 3 vote, ordered a manual recount of disputed ballots in all Florida counties in which such a recount was not already complete. This count was in progess on December 9, when the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5 to 4 vote granted Bush's emergency plea for a stay of the Florida Supreme Court recount ruling, stopping the incomplete recount.

Related Topics:
December 8 - December 9

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Early in the afternoon of December 12, the Republican-dominated Florida House of Representatives voted nearly on party lines to certify the state's electors for Bush. Later that afternoon, the Florida Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings authorizing recounts in several south Florida counties.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Around 10 pm EST on December 12, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its ruling in favor of Bush by a 5-4 vote, effectively ending the legal review of the vote count with Bush in the lead. Seven of the nine justices cited differing vote-counting standards from county to county and the lack of a single judicial officer to oversee the recount, both of which, they ruled, violated the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution.

Related Topics:
EST - December 12 - Equal protection clause - United States Constitution

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The crucial 5 to 4 decision held that insufficient time remained to implement a unified standard and therefore all recounts must stop.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

At 9pm on December 13, in a nationally televised address, Gore conceded that he had lost his bid for the presidency. He asked his supporters to support Bush, saying, "This is America, and we put country before party." During his speech, Gore's family, running mate Joe Lieberman, and Lieberman's wife Hadassah stood nearby.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Texas Governor George W. Bush became President-elect and began forming his transition committee. Bush seemed to try to reach across party lines and bridge a divided America, stating that "the president of the United States is the president of every single American, of every race and every background."

Related Topics:
Texas - George W. Bush

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On January 6, 2001, a joint session of U.S. Congress met to certify the U.S. Electoral College vote. Although twenty members of the House of Representatives, most of them Democratic members of the Congressional Black Caucus, rose one by one to file objections to the electoral votes of Florida, each was ruled out of order by Gore, according to an 1877 law requiring any such objection to be sponsored by a Senator, none of whom was willing to do so.

Related Topics:
January 6 - 2001 - U.S. Congress - U.S. Electoral College - House of Representatives - Congressional Black Caucus - 1877 - Senator

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bush took the oath of office on January 20.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Results

Vice President Al Gore came in second even though he received a larger number of popular votes (Gore won 500,000 more popular votes than Bush) and this contributed to the controversy of the election. This was the fourth time that a candidate who did not receive a plurality of the popular vote received a majority of the Electoral College vote, the first time being in the 1824 elections, although popular vote records do not exist for earlier elections and in 1824 many states did not have a Presidential popular vote (in those states, electors were still chosen by the state legislature). Until this election, the 1888 election had been the most recent presidential election in which the winners of the popular and electoral vote differed. It should be pointed out that if the American system were based on the popular vote, rather than the Electoral College, then the focus and methods of campaigning would be different. Because of this, the validity of using popular-vote totals under the present system to predict who would have won an actual popular vote election is questionable.

Related Topics:
Vice President - Al Gore - 1824 elections - 1888 election

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Gore failed to win the popular vote in his home state of Tennessee. Had he won Tennessee, he could have won the election without Florida. Gore was the first major party presidential candidate to have lost his home state since George McGovern lost South Dakota in 1972.

Related Topics:
Tennessee - George McGovern - South Dakota - 1972

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Source (Popular Vote): {{Leip PV source 2| year=2000| as of=August 7, 2005}}

Related Topics:
August 7 - 2005

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Source (Electoral Vote): 2000 Electoral Vote Totals. Official website of the National Archives. (August 7, 2005).

Related Topics:
August 7 - 2005

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(a) One elector from the District of Columbia, Barbara Lett-Simmons, abstained from voting in protest of the District's lack of a voting representative in US Congress. (D.C. did have a non-voting delegate to Congress.)

Related Topics:
District of Columbia - Barbara Lett-Simmons - Protest - US Congress - Non-voting delegate

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(b) {{U.S. presidential election PV minimum}}

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Detailed results by state are also available

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Close states

• Florida, 0.01%
• New Mexico, 0.06%
• Wisconsin, 0.22%
• Iowa, 0.31%
• Oregon, 0.44%
• New Hampshire, 1.27%
• Minnesota, 2.40%
• Missouri, 3.34%
• Ohio, 3.51%
• Nevada, 3.55%
• Tennessee, 3.86%
• Pennsylvania, 4.17%
• Maine, 5.11%
• Michigan, 5.13%
• Arkansas, 5.44%
• Washington, 5.58%
• Arizona, 6.28%
• West Virginia, 6.32%
• Louisiana, 7.68%
• Virginia, 8.04%
• Colorado, 8.36%
• Vermont, 9.94%