United States presidential election, 2000

This article is about the United States presidential election held in 2000. For information about other elections held within the United States in 2000, see United States elections, 2000.
United States presidential election, 2000
United States
November 7, 2000
All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout 51.2%[1] Increase 2.2 pp
 
Nominee George W. Bush Al Gore
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Texas Tennessee
Running mate Dick Cheney Joseph Lieberman
Electoral vote 271 266[2]
States carried 30 20 + DC
Popular vote 50,456,002 50,999,897
Percentage 47.9% 48.4%
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Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Bush/Cheney, blue denotes those won by Gore/Lieberman. One of D.C.'s three electors abstained. Numbers indicate electoral votes allotted to the winner of each state.
President before election

Bill Clinton
Democratic

 Elected President

George W. Bush
Republican

The United States presidential election of 2000 was the 54th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the incumbent governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush, narrowly defeated the Democratic candidate Al Gore, the incumbent vice president and former Tennessee senator, as well as various third-party candidates including Ralph Nader. The 2000 presidential election was the fourth of five elections in U.S. history and the first in 112 years in which the eventual winner failed to win the popular vote (after the elections of 1824, 1876, and 1888, and prior to the election of 2016).

Incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton was not eligible to serve a third term due to term limits in the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, and Vice President Gore was able to secure the Democratic nomination with relative ease. Bush was seen as the early favorite for the Republican nomination and, despite a contentious primary battle with Senator John McCain and other candidates, secured the nomination by Super Tuesday. Bush chose former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney as his running mate, while Gore chose Senator Joe Lieberman as his. Both major party candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as the budget, tax relief, and reforms for federal social insurance programs, although foreign policy was not ignored. Clinton and Gore often did not campaign together, a deliberate decision resulting from the Lewinsky sex scandal two years prior.

This was the closest presidential election in the nation's history, with a .009% margin, 537 votes, separating the two candidates in the decisive state, Florida. The narrow margin there triggered a mandatory recount. Litigation in select counties started additional recounts, and this litigation ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court. The Court's contentious 5–4 decision in Bush v. Gore, announced on December 12, 2000, ended the recounts, effectively awarding Florida's votes to Bush and granting him the victory. Studies have reached conflicting conclusions about who would have won the recount had it been allowed to proceed.

The Green Party gained widespread public attention during the 2000 presidential election when the ticket composed of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke won 2.7% of the popular vote. Nader was vilified by some Democrats, who accused him of spoiling the election for Al Gore. Nader's impact on the 2000 election has remained controversial.

Background

Bill Clinton, the incumbent president, whose term expired in January 2001

Article Two of the United States Constitution provides that the President and Vice President of the United States must be natural-born citizens of the United States, at least 35 years old, and a resident of the United States for a period of at least 14 years. Candidates for the presidency typically seek the nomination of one of the political parties of the United States, in which case each party devises a method (such as a primary election) to choose the candidate the party deems best suited to run for the position. Traditionally, the primary elections are indirect elections where voters cast ballots for a slate of party delegates pledged to a particular candidate. The party's delegates then officially nominate a candidate to run on the party's behalf. The general election in November is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the President and Vice President.

President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and former Governor of Arkansas, was ineligible to seek reelection to a third term due to restrictions of the Twenty-second Amendment. In accordance with Section I of the Twentieth Amendment, his term expired at 12:00 noon EST on January 20, 2001.

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic candidates

Democratic Party Ticket, 2000
Al Gore Joe Lieberman
for President for Vice President
45th
Vice President of the United States
(1993–2001)		 U.S. Senator
from Connecticut
(1989–2013)
Campaign

Candidates gallery

Al Gore from Tennessee was a consistent front-runner for the nomination. Other prominent Democrats mentioned as possible contenders included Bob Kerrey,[3] Missouri Representative Dick Gephardt, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, and famous actor and director Warren Beatty, who declined to run.[4] Of these, only Wellstone formed an exploratory committee.[5]

Running an insurgency campaign, Bradley positioned himself as the alternative to Gore, who was a founding member of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. While former basketball star Michael Jordan campaigned for him in the early primary states, Bradley announced his intention to campaign "in a different way" by conducting a positive campaign of "big ideas". The focus of his campaign was a plan to spend the record-breaking budget surplus on a variety of social welfare programs to help the poor and the middle-class, along with campaign finance reform and gun control.

Gore easily defeated Bradley in the primaries, largely because of support from the Democratic Party establishment and Bradley's poor showing in the Iowa caucus, where Gore successfully painted Bradley as aloof and indifferent to the plight of farmers. The closest Bradley came to a victory was his 50–46 loss to Gore in the New Hampshire primary. On March 14, Al Gore won the Democratic nomination.

None of Bradley's delegates were allowed to vote for him, so Gore won the nomination unanimously at the Democratic National Convention. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was nominated for vice president by voice vote. Lieberman became the first Jewish American ever to be chosen for this position by a major party. Gore chose Lieberman over five finalists.[6]

Delegate totals:

Republican Party nomination

Republican Party Ticket, 2000
George W. Bush Dick Cheney
for President for Vice President
46th
Governor of Texas
(1995–2000)		 17th
U.S. Secretary of Defense
(1989–1993)
Campaign
Republican candidates

Candidates gallery

George W. Bush became the early front-runner, acquiring unprecedented funding and a broad base of leadership support based on his governorship of Texas and the name recognition and connections of the Bush family. Former cabinet member George Shultz played an important early role in securing establishment Republican support for Bush. In April 1998, he invited Bush to discuss policy issues with experts including Michael Boskin, John Taylor, and Condoleezza Rice. The group, which was "looking for a candidate for 2000 with good political instincts, someone they could work with", was impressed, and Shultz encouraged him to enter the race.[8] Several aspirants withdrew before the Iowa Caucus because they were unable to secure funding and endorsements sufficient to remain competitive with Bush. These included Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, Lamar Alexander, and Bob Smith. Pat Buchanan dropped out to run for the Reform Party nomination. That left Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, and Orrin Hatch as the only candidates still in the race.

On January 24, Bush won the Iowa caucus with 41% of the vote. Forbes came in second with 30% of the vote. Keyes received 14%, Bauer 9%, McCain 5%, and Hatch 1%. Hatch dropped out. On the national stage, Bush was portrayed in the media as the establishment candidate. McCain, with the support of many moderate Republicans and Independents, portrayed himself as a crusading insurgent who focused on campaign reform.

On February 1, McCain won a 49–30% victory over Bush in the New Hampshire primary. Gary Bauer dropped out. After coming in third in Delaware Forbes dropped out, leaving three candidates. In the South Carolina primary, Bush soundly defeated McCain. Some McCain supporters blamed it on the Bush campaign, accusing them of mudslinging and dirty tricks, such as push polling that implied that McCain's adopted Bangladeshi-born daughter was an African-American child he fathered out of wedlock.[9] While McCain's loss in South Carolina damaged his campaign, he won both Michigan and his home state of Arizona on February 22. The primary election that year also affected the South Carolina State House, when a controversy about the Confederate flag flying over the capitol dome prompted the state legislature to move the flag to a less prominent position at a Civil War memorial on the capitol grounds. Most GOP candidates said the issue should be left to South Carolina voters, though McCain later recanted and said the flag should be removed.[10]

On February 24, McCain criticized Bush for accepting the endorsement of Bob Jones University despite its policy banning interracial dating. On February 28, McCain also referred to Rev. Jerry Falwell and televangelist Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance", a term he would later distance himself from during his 2008 bid. He lost the state of Virginia to Bush on February 29. On Super Tuesday, March 7, Bush won New York, Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, California, Maryland, and Maine. McCain won Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, but dropped out of the race. McCain would eventually become the Republican presidential nominee 8 years later, which he then lost to Barack Obama. On March 10, Alan Keyes got 21% of the vote in Utah. Bush took the majority of the remaining contests and won the Republican nomination on March 14, winning his home state of Texas and his brother Jeb's home state of Florida among others. At the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia George W. Bush accepted the nomination of the Republican party.

Bush asked former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to head up a team to help select a running mate for him, but ultimately, Bush decided that Cheney himself should be the vice presidential nominee. While the U.S. Constitution does not specifically disallow a president and a vice president from the same state, it does prohibit electors from casting both of his or her votes for persons from his or her own state. Accordingly, Cheney—who had been a resident of Texas for nearly 10 years—changed his voting registration back to Wyoming. Had Cheney not done this, either he or Bush would have forfeited their electoral votes from the Texas electors.

Delegate totals

Other nominations

Reform Party nomination

The nomination went to Pat Buchanan[13] and running mate Ezola Foster from California, over the objections of party founder Ross Perot and despite a rump convention nomination of John Hagelin by the Perot faction (see Other nominations below). In the end, the Federal Election Commission sided with Buchanan, and that ticket appeared on 49 of 51 possible ballots.

Association of State Green Parties nomination

Ralph Nader
Founder of Public Citizen and
progressive activist
(campaign)

The Greens/Green Party USA, the then-recognized national party organization, later endorsed Ralph Nader for president and he appeared on the ballots of 43 states and DC.

Libertarian Party nomination

The Libertarian Party's National Nominating Convention nominated Harry Browne from Tennessee and Art Olivier from California for president and vice president respectively.  Browne was nominated on the first ballot and Olivier received the vice presidential nomination on the second ballot.[16]  Browne appeared on every state ballot except for Arizona, due to a dispute between the Libertarian Party of Arizona (who instead nominated L. Neil Smith) and the national Libertarian Party.

Constitution Party nomination

The Constitution Party nominated Howard Phillips from Virginia for a third time and Curtis Frazier from Missouri. The Constitution Party was on the ballot in 41 states.[17]

Natural Law Party nomination

The Natural Law Party held its national convention in Arlington, Virginia, August 31 – September 2, nominating a ticket of Hagelin/Goldhaber via unanimous decision without a roll-call vote.[18] The party was on 38 of the 51 ballots nationally.[17]

General election campaign

Although the campaign focused mainly on domestic issues, such as the projected budget surplus, proposed reforms of Social Security and Medicare, health care, and competing plans for tax relief, foreign policy was often an issue. Bush criticized Clinton administration policies in Somalia, where 18 Americans died in 1993 trying to sort out warring factions, and in the Balkans, where United States 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.[19] Bush also pledged to bridge partisan gaps in the nation's capital, claiming the atmosphere in Washington stood in the way of progress on necessary reforms.[20] Gore, meanwhile, questioned Bush's fitness for the job, pointing to gaffes made by Bush in interviews and speeches and suggesting the Texas governor lacked the necessary experience to be president.

Bill Clinton's impeachment and the sex scandal that led up to it cast a shadow on the campaign, particularly on his vice president's run to replace him. Republicans strongly denounced the Clinton scandals, particularly Bush, who made his repeated promise to restore "honor and dignity" to the White House a centerpiece of his campaign. Gore studiously avoided the Clinton scandals, as did Lieberman, even though Lieberman had been the first Democratic senator to denounce Clinton's misbehavior. In fact, some media observers theorized that Gore actually chose Lieberman in an attempt to separate himself from Clinton's past misdeeds, and help blunt the GOP's attempts to link him to his boss.[21] Others pointed to the passionate kiss Gore gave his wife during the Democratic Convention, as a signal that despite the allegations against Clinton, Gore himself was a faithful husband.[22] Gore avoided appearing with Clinton, who was shunted to low visibility appearances in areas where he was popular. Experts have argued that this could have cost Gore votes from some of Clinton's core supporters.[23][24][25]

Ralph Nader was the most successful of third-party candidates. His campaign was marked by a traveling tour of large "super-rallies" held in sports arenas like Madison Square Garden, with retired talk show host Phil Donahue as master of ceremonies. After initially ignoring Nader, the Gore campaign made a pitch to potential Nader supporters in the final weeks of the campaign, downplaying Gore's differences with Nader on the issues and arguing that Gore's ideas were more similar to Nader's than Bush's were, and 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 an effort to split the liberal vote.[26] Nader claimed his objective in the campaign was to pass the 5-percent threshold so his Green Party would be eligible for matching funds in future races.

Both vice presidential candidates Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman campaigned aggressively in the 2000 presidential election. Both camps made numerous campaign stops nationwide, often just missing each other such as when Cheney, Hadassah Lieberman, and Tipper Gore attended Chicago's Taste of Polonia over Labor Day Weekend.[27]

Presidential debates

There were three presidential debates:

There was also one vice-presidential debate:

After the 1996 presidential election, the Commission on Presidential Debates set new candidate selection criteria.[32] The new criteria required third-party candidates to poll at least 15% of the vote in national polls in order to take part in the CPD-sponsored presidential debates.[32] Ralph Nader was blocked from attending a closed circuit screening of the first debate in spite of his holding a ticket.[33] He was barred from attending an interview near the site of the third debate in spite of having a "perimeter pass".[34] Nader later sued the CPD for its role in the former incident. A settlement was reached that included an apology to Nader.[35]

Notable expressions and phrases

Results

Palm Beach County recount

With the exceptions of Florida and Gore's home state of Tennessee, Bush carried the Southern states by comfortable margins (including then-President Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas) and also secured wins in Ohio, Indiana, most of the rural Midwestern farming states, most of the Rocky Mountain states, and Alaska. Gore balanced Bush by sweeping the Northeastern United States (with the sole exception of New Hampshire, which Bush won narrowly), most of the Upper Midwest, and all of the Pacific Coast states of Washington, Oregon, and California, and carried Hawaii, as well.

As the night wore on, the returns in a handful of small-to-medium-sized states, including Wisconsin and Iowa, were extremely close; however it was the state of Florida that would decide the winner of the election. As the final national results were tallied the following morning, Bush had clearly won a total of 246 electoral votes, while Gore had won 255 votes. 270 votes were needed to win. Two smaller states—New Mexico (5 electoral votes) and Oregon (7 electoral votes)—were still too close to call. It was Florida (25 electoral votes), however, that the news media focused their attention on. Mathematically, Florida's 25 electoral votes became the key to an election win for either candidate. Although both New Mexico and Oregon were declared in favor of Gore over the next few days, Florida's statewide vote took center stage because that state's winner would ultimately win the election. The outcome of the election was not known for more than a month after the balloting ended because of the extended process of counting and then recounting Florida's presidential ballots.

Florida recount

2000 Palm Beach County voting stand and ballot box

Between 7:50 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. EST on election day, just as the polls closed in the largely Republican Florida panhandle, which is in the Central time zone, all major television news networks (CNN, NBC, FOX, CBS, MSNBC, and ABC) declared that Gore had carried Florida's 25 electoral votes. They based this prediction substantially on exit polls. However, in the actual vote tally Bush began to take a wide lead early in Florida, and by 10 p.m. EST the networks had retracted that prediction and placed Florida back into the "undecided" column. At approximately 2:30 a.m., with some 85% of the votes counted in Florida and Bush leading Gore by more than 100,000 votes, the networks declared that Bush had carried Florida and therefore had been elected president. However, most of the remaining votes to be counted in Florida were located in three heavily Democratic counties—Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach—and as their votes were reported Gore began to gain on Bush. By 4:30 a.m., after all votes were counted, Gore had narrowed Bush's margin to just over 2,000 votes, and the networks retracted their predictions that Bush had won Florida and the presidency. Gore, who had privately conceded the election to Bush, withdrew his concession. The final result in Florida was slim enough to require a mandatory recount (by machine) under state law; Bush's lead had dwindled to about 300 votes by the time it was completed later that week. A count of overseas military ballots later boosted his margin to 930 votes.

Florida Supreme Court

Most of the post-electoral controversy revolved around Gore's request for hand recounts in four counties (Broward, Miami Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia), as provided under Florida state law. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced she would reject any revised totals from those counties if they were not turned in by 5:00 p.m. on November 14, the statutory deadline for amended returns. The Florida Supreme Court extended the deadline to November 26, a decision later vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Miami-Dade eventually halted its recount and resubmitted its original total to the state canvassing board, while Palm Beach County failed to meet the extended deadline, turning in its completed recount results at 7:00 p.m., which Harris indeed rejected. On November 26, the state canvassing board certified Bush the winner of Florida's electors by 537 votes. Gore formally contested the certified results. A state court decision overruling Gore was reversed by the Florida Supreme Court, which ordered a recount of over 70,000 ballots previously rejected by machine counters. The U.S. Supreme Court halted that order the next day, with Justice Scalia issuing a concurring opinion that "the counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to petitioner" (Bush).[36]

On December 12, the Supreme Court ruled in a 7–2 vote that the Florida Supreme Court's ruling requiring a statewide recount of ballots was unconstitutional, and in a 5–4 vote that the Florida recounts could not be completed before a December 12 "safe harbor" deadline, and should therefore cease and the previously certified total should hold.

National results

Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote, he received 543,895 more popular votes than Bush,[37] making him the first person since Grover Cleveland in 1888 to win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College. (It would happen again 16 years later, when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the 2016 election.) Gore failed to win the popular vote in his home state, Tennessee, which both he and his father had represented in the Senate, making him the first major-party presidential candidate to have lost his home state since George McGovern lost South Dakota in 1972. Furthermore, Gore lost West Virginia, a state that had voted Republican only once in the previous six presidential elections,[38] and Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas, which had voted twice before to elect Gore vice president. A victory in any of these three states would have given Gore enough electoral votes to win the presidency.

Bush is also the first Republican in American history to win the presidency without winning Vermont or Illinois, the second Republican to win the presidency without winning California (James A. Garfield in 1880 was the first) or Pennsylvania (Richard Nixon in 1968 was the first), and the first winning Republican not to receive any electoral votes from California (Garfield received one vote in 1880). Bush also lost in Connecticut, the state of his birth.

Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote		 Running mate
Count Pct Vice-presidential candidate Home state Elect. vote
George Walker Bush Republican Texas 50,456,002 47.87% 271 Richard Bruce Cheney Wyoming 271
Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. Democratic Tennessee 50,999,897 48.38% 266 Joseph Isadore Lieberman Connecticut 266
Ralph Nader Green Connecticut 2,882,955 2.74% 0 Winona LaDuke Minnesota 0
Pat Buchanan Reform Virginia 448,895 0.43% 0 Ezola B. Foster California 0
Harry Browne Libertarian Tennessee 384,431 0.36% 0 Art Olivier California 0
Howard Phillips Constitution Virginia 98,020 0.09% 0 Curtis Frazier Missouri 0
John Hagelin Natural Law Iowa 83,714 0.08% 0 Nat Goldhaber California 0
Other 51,186 0.05% — Other —
(abstention)[lower-alpha 1] — — — — 1 (abstention)[lower-alpha 1] — 1
Total 105,405,100 100% 538 538
Needed to win 270 270
Source: "2000 Presidential Electoral and Popular Vote" (Excel 4.0). Federal Election Commission. 
Popular vote
Gore
  
 48.38%
Bush
  
 47.87%
Nader
  
 2.74%
Buchanan
  
 0.43%
Browne
  
 0.36%
Others
  
 0.22%
Electoral vote
Bush
  
 50.37%
Gore
  
 49.44%
Abstention
  
 0.19%

State results

States where the margin of victory was less than 5% (139 electoral votes):

  1. Florida, 0.0092%
  2. New Mexico, 0.061%
  3. Wisconsin, 0.22%
  4. Iowa, 0.31%
  5. Oregon, 0.44%
  6. New Hampshire, 1.27%
  7. Minnesota, 2.40%
  8. Missouri, 3.34%
  9. Ohio, 3.51%
  10. Nevada, 3.55%
  11. Tennessee, 3.86%
  12. Pennsylvania, 4.17%

States where the margin of victory was more than 5% but less than 10% (85 electoral votes):

  1. Maine, 5.11%
  2. Michigan, 5.13%
  3. Arkansas, 5.44%
  4. Washington, 5.58%
  5. Arizona, 6.29%
  6. West Virginia, 6.32%
  7. Louisiana, 7.68%
  8. Virginia, 8.04%
  9. Colorado, 8.36%
  10. Vermont, 9.94%

Data comes from https://web.archive.org/web/20120825102042/http://www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html#2000, a U.S. government document.

Results by state

States/districts won by Gore/Lieberman
States/districts won by Bush/Cheney
George W. Bush
Republican		 Al Gore
Democratic		 Ralph Nader
Green		 Pat Buchanan
Reform		 Harry Browne
Libertarian		 Howard Phillips
Constitution		 John Hagelin
Natural Law		 Others Margin State Total
State electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % #
Alabama 9 941,173 56.48% 9 692,611 41.57% – 18,323 1.10% – 6,351 0.38% – 5,893 0.35% – 775 0.05% – 447 0.03% – 699 0.04% – −248,562 −14.92% 1,666,272 AL
Alaska 3 167,398 58.62% 3 79,004 27.67% – 28,747 10.07% – 5,192 1.82% – 2,636 0.92% – 596 0.21% – 919 0.32% – 1,068 0.37% – −88,394 −30.95% 285,560 AK
Arizona★ 8 781,652 51.02% 8 685,341 44.73% – 45,645 2.98% – 12,373 0.81% – – – – 110 0.01% – 1,120 0.07% – 5,775 0.38% – −96,311 −6.29% 1,532,016 AZ
Arkansas 6 472,940 51.31% 6 422,768 45.86% – 13,421 1.46% – 7,358 0.80% – 2,781 0.30% – 1,415 0.15% – 1,098 0.12% – – – – −50,172 −5.44% 921,781 AR
California 54 4,567,429 41.65% – 5,861,203 53.45% 54 418,707 3.82% – 44,987 0.41% – 45,520 0.42% – 17,042 0.16% – 10,934 0.10% – 34 0.00% – 1,293,774 11.80% 10,965,856 CA
Colorado 8 883,748 50.75% 8 738,227 42.39% – 91,434 5.25% – 10,465 0.60% – 12,799 0.73% – 1,319 0.08% – 2,240 0.13% – 1,136 0.07% – −145,521 −8.36% 1,741,368 CO
Connecticut 8 561,094 38.44% – 816,015 55.91% 8 64,452 4.42% – 4,731 0.32% – 3,484 0.24% – 9,695 0.66% – 40 0.00% – 14 0.00% – 254,921 17.47% 1,459,525 CT
Delaware 3 137,288 41.90% – 180,068 54.96% 3 8,307 2.54% – 777 0.24% – 774 0.24% – 208 0.06% – 107 0.03% – 93 0.03% – 42,780 13.06% 327,622 DE
D.C. 3 18,073 8.95% – 171,923 85.16% 2 10,576 5.24% – – – – 669 0.33% – – – – – – – 653 0.32% 1 153,850 76.20% 201,894 DC
Florida 25 2,912,790 48.85% 25 2,912,253 48.84% – 97,488 1.63% – 17,484 0.29% – 16,415 0.28% – 1,371 0.02% – 2,281 0.04% – 3,028 0.05% – −537 −0.01% 5,963,110 FL
Georgia 13 1,419,720 54.67% 13 1,116,230 42.98% – 13,432 0.52% – 10,926 0.42% – 36,332 1.40% – 140 0.01% – – – – 24 0.00% – −303,490 −11.69% 2,596,804 GA
Hawaii 4 137,845 37.46% – 205,286 55.79% 4 21,623 5.88% – 1,071 0.29% – 1,477 0.40% – 343 0.09% – 306 0.08% – – – – 67,441 18.33% 367,951 HI
Idaho 4 336,937 67.17% 4 138,637 27.64% – 12,292 2.45% – 7,615 1.52% – 3,488 0.70% – 1,469 0.29% – 1,177 0.23% – 6 0.00% – −198,300 −39.53% 501,621 ID
Illinois 22 2,019,421 42.58% – 2,589,026 54.60% 22 103,759 2.19% – 16,106 0.34% – 11,623 0.25% – 57 0.00% – 2,127 0.04% – 4 0.00% – 569,605 12.01% 4,742,123 IL
Indiana 12 1,245,836 56.65% 12 901,980 41.01% – 18,531 0.84% – 16,959 0.77% – 15,530 0.71% – 200 0.01% – 167 0.01% – 99 0.00% – −343,856 −15.63% 2,199,302 IN
Iowa 7 634,373 48.22% – 638,517 48.54% 7 29,374 2.23% – 5,731 0.44% – 3,209 0.24% – 613 0.05% – 2,281 0.17% – 1,465 0.11% – 4,144 0.31% 1,315,563 IA
Kansas 6 622,332 58.04% 6 399,276 37.24% – 36,086 3.37% – 7,370 0.69% – 4,525 0.42% – 1,254 0.12% – 1,375 0.13% – – – – −223,056 −20.80% 1,072,218 KS
Kentucky 8 872,492 56.50% 8 638,898 41.37% – 23,192 1.50% – 4,173 0.27% – 2,896 0.19% – 923 0.06% – 1,533 0.10% – 80 0.01% – −233,594 −15.13% 1,544,187 KY
Louisiana 9 927,871 52.55% 9 792,344 44.88% – 20,473 1.16% – 14,356 0.81% – 2,951 0.17% – 5,483 0.31% – 1,075 0.06% – 1,103 0.06% – −135,527 −7.68% 1,765,656 LA
Maine† 4 286,616 43.97% – 319,951 49.09% 4 37,127 5.70% – 4,443 0.68% – 3,074 0.47% – 579 0.09% – – – – 27 0.00% – 33,335 5.11% 651,817 ME
Maryland 10 813,797 40.18% – 1,145,782 56.57% 10 53,768 2.65% – 4,248 0.21% – 5,310 0.26% – 919 0.05% – 176 0.01% – 1,480 0.07% – 331,985 16.39% 2,025,480 MD
Massachusetts 12 878,502 32.50% – 1,616,487 59.80% 12 173,564 6.42% – 11,149 0.41% – 16,366 0.61% – – – – 2,884 0.11% – 4,032 0.15% – 737,985 27.30% 2,702,984 MA
Michigan 18 1,953,139 46.15% – 2,170,418 51.28% 18 84,165 1.99% – 1,851 0.04% – 16,711 0.39% – 3,791 0.09% – 2,426 0.06% – – – – 217,279 5.13% 4,232,501 MI
Minnesota 10 1,109,659 45.50% – 1,168,266 47.91% 10 126,696 5.20% – 22,166 0.91% – 5,282 0.22% – 3,272 0.13% – 2,294 0.09% – 1,050 0.04% – 58,607 2.40% 2,438,685 MN
Mississippi 7 572,844 57.62% 7 404,614 40.70% – 8,122 0.82% – 2,265 0.23% – 2,009 0.20% – 3,267 0.33% – 450 0.05% – 613 0.06% – −168,230 −16.92% 994,184 MS
Missouri 11 1,189,924 50.42% 11 1,111,138 47.08% – 38,515 1.63% – 9,818 0.42% – 7,436 0.32% – 1,957 0.08% – 1,104 0.05% – – – – −78,786 −3.34% 2,359,892 MO
Montana 3 240,178 58.44% 3 137,126 33.36% – 24,437 5.95% – 5,697 1.39% – 1,718 0.42% – 1,155 0.28% – 675 0.16% – 11 0.00% – −103,052 −25.07% 410,997 MT
Nebraska† 5 433,862 62.25% 5 231,780 33.25% – 24,540 3.52% – 3,646 0.52% – 2,245 0.32% – 468 0.07% – 478 0.07% – – – – −202,082 −28.99% 697,019 NE
Nevada 4 301,575 49.52% 4 279,978 45.98% – 15,008 2.46% – 4,747 0.78% – 3,311 0.54% – 621 0.10% – 415 0.07% – 3,315 0.54% – −21,597 −3.55% 608,970 NV
New Hampshire 4 273,559 48.07% 4 266,348 46.80% – 22,198 3.90% – 2,615 0.46% – 2,757 0.48% – 328 0.06% – 55 0.01% – 1,221 0.21% – −7,211 −1.27% 569,081 NH
New Jersey 15 1,284,173 40.29% – 1,788,850 56.13% 15 94,554 2.97% – 6,989 0.22% – 6,312 0.20% – 1,409 0.04% – 2,215 0.07% – 2,724 0.09% – 504,677 15.83% 3,187,226 NJ
New Mexico 5 286,417 47.85% – 286,783 47.91% 5 21,251 3.55% – 1,392 0.23% – 2,058 0.34% – 343 0.06% – 361 0.06% – – – – 366 0.06% 598,605 NM
New York 33 2,403,374 35.23% – 4,107,697 60.21% 33 244,030 3.58% – 31,599 0.46% – 7,649 0.11% – 1,498 0.02% – 24,361 0.36% – 1,791 0.03% – 1,704,323 24.98% 6,821,999 NY
North Carolina 14 1,631,163 56.03% 14 1,257,692 43.20% – – – – 8,874 0.30% – 12,307 0.42% – – – – – – – 1,226 0.04% – −373,471 −12.83% 2,911,262 NC
North Dakota 3 174,852 60.66% 3 95,284 33.06% – 9,486 3.29% – 7,288 2.53% – 660 0.23% – 373 0.13% – 313 0.11% – – – – −79,568 −27.60% 288,256 ND
Ohio 21 2,351,209 49.97% 21 2,186,190 46.46% – 117,857 2.50% – 26,724 0.57% – 13,475 0.29% – 3,823 0.08% – 6,169 0.13% – 10 0.00% – −165,019 −3.51% 4,705,457 OH
Oklahoma 8 744,337 60.31% 8 474,276 38.43% – – – – 9,014 0.73% – 6,602 0.53% – – – – – – – – – – −270,061 −21.88% 1,234,229 OK
Oregon 7 713,577 46.52% – 720,342 46.96% 7 77,357 5.04% – 7,063 0.46% – 7,447 0.49% – 2,189 0.14% – 2,574 0.17% – 3,419 0.22% – 6,765 0.44% 1,533,968 OR
Pennsylvania 23 2,281,127 46.43% – 2,485,967 50.60% 23 103,392 2.10% – 16,023 0.33% – 11,248 0.23% – 14,428 0.29% – – – – 934 0.02% – 204,840 4.17% 4,913,119 PA
Rhode Island 4 130,555 31.91% – 249,508 60.99% 4 25,052 6.12% – 2,273 0.56% – 742 0.18% – 97 0.02% – 271 0.07% – 614 0.15% – 118,953 29.08% 409,112 RI
South Carolina 8 785,937 56.84% 8 565,561 40.90% – 20,200 1.46% – 3,519 0.25% – 4,876 0.35% – 1,682 0.12% – 942 0.07% – – – – −220,376 −15.94% 1,382,717 SC
South Dakota 3 190,700 60.30% 3 118,804 37.56% – – – – 3,322 1.05% – 1,662 0.53% – 1,781 0.56% – – – – – – – −71,896 −22.73% 316,269 SD
Tennessee 11 1,061,949 51.15% 11 981,720 47.28% – 19,781 0.95% – 4,250 0.20% – 4,284 0.21% – 1,015 0.05% – 613 0.03% – 2,569 0.12% – −80,229 −3.86% 2,076,181 TN
Texas 32 3,799,639 59.30% 32 2,433,746 37.98% – 137,994 2.15% – 12,394 0.19% – 23,160 0.36% – 567 0.01% – – – – 137 0.00% – −1,365,893 −21.32% 6,407,637 TX
Utah 5 515,096 66.83% 5 203,053 26.34% – 35,850 4.65% – 9,319 1.21% – 3,616 0.47% – 2,709 0.35% – 763 0.10% – 348 0.05% – −312,043 −40.49% 770,754 UT
Vermont 3 119,775 40.70% – 149,022 50.63% 3 20,374 6.92% – 2,192 0.74% – 784 0.27% – 153 0.05% – 219 0.07% – 1,789 0.61% – 29,247 9.94% 294,308 VT
Virginia 13 1,437,490 52.47% 13 1,217,290 44.44% – 59,398 2.17% – 5,455 0.20% – 15,198 0.55% – 1,809 0.07% – 171 0.01% – 2,636 0.10% – −220,200 −8.04% 2,739,447 VA
Washington 11 1,108,864 44.58% – 1,247,652 50.16% 11 103,002 4.14% – 7,171 0.29% – 13,135 0.53% – 1,989 0.08% – 2,927 0.12% – 2,693 0.11% – 138,788 5.58% 2,487,433 WA
West Virginia 5 336,475 51.92% 5 295,497 45.59% – 10,680 1.65% – 3,169 0.49% – 1,912 0.30% – 23 0.00% – 367 0.06% – 1 0.00% – −40,978 −6.32% 648,124 WV
Wisconsin 11 1,237,279 47.61% – 1,242,987 47.83% 11 94,070 3.62% – 11,471 0.44% – 6,640 0.26% – 2,042 0.08% – 853 0.03% – 3,265 0.13% – 5,708 0.22% 2,598,607 WI
Wyoming 3 147,947 67.76% 3 60,481 27.70% – 4,625 2.12% – 2,724 1.25% – 1,443 0.66% – 720 0.33% – 411 0.19% – – – – −87,466 −40.06% 218,351 WY
Totals 538 50,456,002 47.87% 271 50,999,897 48.38% 266 2,882,955 2.74% – 448,895 0.43% – 384,431★ 0.36%★ – 98,020 0.09% – 83,714 0.08% – 51,186 0.05% – 543,895 0.52% 105,405,100 US

Arizona results

★The Libertarian Party of Arizona had ballot access, but opted to supplant Browne with L. Neil Smith.  Thus, in Arizona, Smith received 5,775 votes, constituting 0.38% of the Arizona vote.  When adding Smith's 5,775 votes to Browne's 384,431 votes nationwide, that brings the total votes cast for president for the Libertarian Party in 2000 to 390,206, or 0.37% of the vote.

Maine and Nebraska district results

†Maine and Nebraska each allow for their electoral votes to be split between candidates. In both states, two electoral votes are awarded to the winner of the statewide race and one electoral vote is awarded to the winner of each congressional district. The following table records the official presidential vote tallies for Maine and Nebraska's congressional districts.[40][41]

District Electors Bush% Gore% Nader% Buchanan% Browne% Phillips% Hagelin% Other% Margin % Total
Maine's 1st congressional district 1148,61842.59%176,29350.52%20,2975.82%1,9940.57%1,4790.42%2530.07%––170.00%–27,675–7.93%348,951
Maine's 2nd congressional district 1137,99845.56%143,65847.43%16,8305.56%2,4490.81%1,5950.53%3260.11%––100.00%–5,660–1.87%302,866
Nebraska's 1st congressional district 1142,56258.90%86,94635.92%10,0854.17%1,3240.55%7540.31%1670.07%1850.08%––55,61622.98%242,023
Nebraska's 2nd congressional district 1131,48556.92%88,97538.52%8,4953.68%8450.37%9250.40%1460.06%1410.06%––42,51018.40%231,012
Nebraska's 3rd congressional district 1159,81571.35%55,85924.94%5,9602.66%1,4770.66%5660.25%1550.07%1520.07%––103,95646.41%223,984

Ballot access

Presidential ticket Party Ballot access Votes
Gore / Lieberman Democratic 50+DC 50,999,897
Bush / Cheney Republican 50+DC 50,456,002
Nader / LaDuke Green 43+DC 2,882,955
Buchanan / Foster Reform 49 448,895
Browne / Olivier Libertarian 49+DC★ 384,431★
Phillips / Frazier Constitution 41 98,020
Hagelin / Goldhaber Natural Law 38 83,714

★Although the Libertarian Party had ballot access in all fifty United States plus D.C., Browne's name only appeared on the ballot in forty-nine United States plus D.C.  The Libertarian Party of Arizona opted to place L. Neil Smith on the ballot in Browne's place.  When adding Smith's 5,775 Arizona votes to Browne's 384,431 votes nationwide, that brings the total presidential votes cast for the Libertarian Party in 2000 to 390,206.

Aftermath

After Florida was decided and Gore conceded, Texas Governor George W. Bush became the president-elect and began forming his transition committee.[42] In a speech on December 13, in the Texas House of Representatives chamber,[43] Bush stated he was reaching across party lines to bridge a divided America, saying, "the President of the United States is the President of every single American, of every race, and every background."[44]

Post recount

On January 6, 2001, a joint session of Congress met to certify the electoral vote. 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. However, pursuant to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, any such objection had to be sponsored by both a representative and a senator. No senator would co-sponsor these objections, deferring to the Supreme Court's ruling. Therefore, Gore, who presided in his capacity as President of the Senate, ruled each of these objections out of order.[45]

Subsequently, the joint session of Congress certified the electoral votes from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Bush took the oath of office on January 20, 2001. He would serve for the next eight years. Gore declined to run for president in 2004 and 2008.

The first independent recount was conducted by the Miami Herald and USA Today. The commission found that under most recount scenarios, Bush would have won the election, but Gore would have won using the most generous standards.[46]

Ultimately, a media consortium—comprising The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Tribune Co. (parent of the Los Angeles Times), Associated Press, CNN, The Palm Beach Post and the St. Petersburg Times[47]—hired the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago[48] to examine 175,010 ballots that were collected from the entire state, not just the disputed counties that were recounted; these ballots contained undervotes (votes with no choice made for president) and overvotes (votes made with more than one choice marked). Their goal was to determine the reliability and accuracy of the systems used for the voting process. The NORC concluded that if the disputes over the validity of all the ballots statewide in question had been consistently resolved and any uniform standard applied, the electoral result would have been reversed and Gore would have won by 107–115 votes if only two of the three coders had to agree on the ballot. When counting ballots wherein all three coders agreed, Gore would have won the most restrictive scenario by 127 votes and Bush would have won the most inclusive scenario by 110 votes. Inclusive in media reporting likely refers to including the undervotes (only) as these people were then included in the vote. Whether overvotes were truly nullified in counts is not known.[49]

Subsequent analyses cast further doubt on conclusions that Bush would have likely won had the U.S. Supreme Court not intervened. An analysis of the NORC data by University of Pennsylvania researcher Steven F. Freeman and journalist Joel Bleifuss concluded that a recount of all uncounted votes using any standard (inclusive, strict, statewide or county by county), Gore would have been the victor.[50] Such a statewide review including all uncounted votes was a very real possibility, as Leon County Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis, whom the Florida Supreme Court had assigned to oversee the statewide recount, had scheduled a hearing for December 13 (mooted by the U.S. Supreme Court's final ruling on the 12th) to consider the question of including overvotes as well as undervotes. Subsequent statements by Judge Lewis and internal court documents support the likelihood of including overvotes in the recount.[51] Florida State University professor of public policy Lance deHaven-Smith observed that, even considering only undervotes, "under any of the five most reasonable interpretations of the Florida Supreme Court ruling, Gore does, in fact, more than make up the deficit".[52] Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting's analysis of the NORC study and media coverage of it supports these interpretations and criticizes the coverage of the study by media outlets such as the New York Times and the other media consortium members.[47]

Further, according to sociologists Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza, the 2000 election may have gone to Al Gore if the disenfranchised population of Florida had voted. Florida law disenfranchises convicted felons, requiring individual applications to regain suffrage. In their 2002 American Sociological Review article, Uggen and Manza found that the released felon vote could have altered the outcome of seven senatorial races between 1978 and 2000, and the 2000 presidential election.[53] Matt Ford noted their study concluded "if the state's 827,000 disenfranchised felons had voted at the same rate as other Floridians, Democratic candidate Al Gore would have won Florida—and the presidency—by more than 80,000 votes."[54] The effect of Florida's law is such that in 2014 "[m]ore than one in ten Floridians – and nearly one in four African-American Floridians – are shut out of the polls because of felony convictions."[55]

Voting machines

Because the 2000 presidential election was so close in Florida, the United States government and state governments pushed for election reform to be prepared by the 2004 presidential election. Many of Florida's year 2000 election night problems stemmed from usability and ballot design factors with voting systems, including the potentially confusing "butterfly ballot". Many voters had difficulties with the paper-based punch card voting machines and were either unable to understand the required process for voting or unable to perform the process. This resulted in an unusual amount of overvote (voting for more candidates than is allowed) and undervotes (voting for fewer than the minimum candidates, including none at all). Many undervotes were potentially caused by either voter error or errors with the punch card paper ballots resulting in hanging, dimpled, or pregnant chad.

A proposed solution to these problems was the installation of modern electronic voting machines. The United States presidential election of 2000 spurred the debate about election and voting reform, but it did not end it.

In the aftermath of the election, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was passed to help states upgrade their election technology in the hopes of preventing similar problems in future elections. Unfortunately, the electronic voting systems that many states purchased to comply with HAVA actually caused problems in the presidential election of 2004.[56]

Exit polling and declaration of vote winners

The Voter News Service's reputation was damaged by its treatment of Florida's presidential vote in 2000. Breaking its own guidelines, VNS called the state as a win for Gore 12 minutes before polls closed in the Florida panhandle. Although most of the state is in the Eastern Time Zone, counties in the Florida panhandle, located in the Central Time Zone, had not yet closed their polls. Inconsistent polling results caused the VNS to change its call twice, first from Gore to Bush and then to "too close to call". Due in part to this (and other polling inaccuracies) the VNS was disbanded in 2003.

Likewise, there were discrepancies between the results of the exit polls and the actual outcomes. According to Bush adviser Karl Rove, exit polls early in the afternoon on Election Day showed Gore winning by three percentage points, but when the networks called the state for Gore, Bush led by about 75,000 votes in raw tallies from the Florida Secretary of State.

Also, charges of media bias were levied against the networks by Republicans. They claimed that the networks called states more quickly for Al Gore than for George W. Bush. Congress held hearings on this matter and the networks claimed to have no intentional bias in their election night reporting. However, a study of the calls made on election night 2000 indicated that states carried by Gore were called more quickly than states won by Bush; however, notable Bush states, like New Hampshire and Florida, were very close, and close Gore states like Iowa, Oregon, New Mexico and Wisconsin were called late as well.[57]

The early call of Florida for Gore has been alleged to have cost Bush several close states, including Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin. In each of these states, Gore won by less than 10,000 votes, and the polls closed after the networks called Florida for Gore. Because the Florida call was widely seen as an indicator that Gore had won the election, it is possible that it depressed Republican turnout in these states during the final hours of voting, giving Gore the slim margin by which he carried each of them. Had Bush carried all four of these states, he would have been able to win the electoral vote, even with a loss in Florida. Likewise, the call may have affected the outcome of the Senate election in Washington state, where incumbent Republican Slade Gorton was defeated by approximately 2,000 votes statewide.

Ralph Nader spoiler effect

Many Gore supporters claimed that third-party candidate Nader acted as a spoiler in the election since Nader votes could have been cast for Gore, and for instance, Nader allegedly threw the election outcome to Bush. Nader received 2.74 percent of the popular vote nationwide, getting 97,000 votes in Florida (by comparison, there were 111,251 overvotes)[58] and 22,000 votes in New Hampshire, where Bush beat Gore by 7,000 votes. Winning either state would have won the general election for Gore. Defenders of Nader, including Dan Perkins, argued that the margin in Florida was small enough that Democrats could blame any number of third-party candidates for the defeat, including Workers World Party candidate Monica Moorehead, who received 1,500 votes.[59] But the controversy with Nader also drained energy from the Democratic party as divisive debate went on in the months leading up to the election.

Nader's reputation was hurt by this perception, which may have hindered his goals as an activist. For example, Mother Jones wrote about the so-called "rank-and-file liberals" who saw Nader negatively after the election and pointed that Public Citizen, the organization Nader founded in 1971, had a new fundraising problem in its own founder, citing a drop in contributions. Mother Jones also cited a Public Citizen's letter sent out to people interested in Nader's relation with the organization at that time, with the disclaimer: "Although Ralph Nader was our founder, he has not held an official position in the organization since 1980 and does not serve on the board. Public Citizen—and the other groups that Mr. Nader founded—act independently."[60]

Democratic party strategist and Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) chair Al From expressed a different view. In the January 24, 2001, issue[61] of the DLC's Blueprint magazine,[62] he wrote, "I think they're wrong on all counts. The assertion that Nader's marginal vote hurt Gore is not borne out by polling data. When exit pollers asked voters how they would have voted in a two-way race, Bush actually won by a point. That was better than he did with Nader in the race."

In an online article published by Salon.com on Tuesday, November 28, 2000, progressive activist Jim Hightower mentioned that in Florida, a state Gore lost by only 537 votes, 24,000 Democrats voted for Nader, while another 308,000 Democrats voted for Bush. According to Hightower, 191,000 self-described Liberals in Florida voted for Bush, while fewer than 34,000 voted for Nader. Wrote Hightower:

Even when Gore went skittering across the country in August on a widely ballyhooed "Working Families Tour," he had the Clinton administration's favorite Wall Streeter, Robert Rubin, by his side, sending a stage wink to the corporate powers, assuring them that all his [Gore's] quasi-populist posturing was only rhetoric – not to worry, Rubin still has a grip on policy.[63]

Press influence on race

In their 2007 book The Nightly News Nightmare: Network Television's Coverage of US Presidential Elections, 1988–2004, professors Stephen J. Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter alleged most media outlets influenced the outcome of the election through the use of horse race journalism.[64] Some liberal supporters of Al Gore argued that the media had a bias against Gore and in favor of Bush. Peter Hart and Jim Naureckas, two commentators for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), called the media "serial exaggerators" and alleged that several media outlets were constantly exaggerating criticism of Gore:[65] they alleged that the media falsely claimed Gore lied when he claimed he spoke in an overcrowded science class in Sarasota, Florida,[65] and also alleged the media supposedly gave Bush a pass on certain issues, such as the fact that Bush allegedly exaggerated how much money he signed into the annual Texas state budget to help the uninsured during his second debate with Gore in October 2000.[65] In the April 2000 issue of Washington Monthly, columnist Robert Parry also alleged that media outlets exaggerated Gore's supposed claim that he "discovered" the Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York during a campaign speech in Concord, New Hampshire on November 30, 1999,[66] when he had only claimed he "found" it after it was already evacuated in 1978 because of chemical contamination.[66] Rolling Stone columnist Eric Boehlert also alleged media outlets exaggerated criticism of Gore as early as July 22, 1999,[67] when Gore, known for being an environmentalist, had a friend release 500 million gallons of water into a drought stricken river to help keep his boat afloat for a photo shoot;[67] Boehlert claimed that media outlets exaggerated the actual number of gallons that were released as they claimed it was 4 billion.[67]

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 One faithless elector from the District of Columbia, Barbara Lett-Simmons, abstained from voting in protest of the District's lack of voting representation in the United States Congress. (D.C. has a non-voting delegate to Congress.) She had been expected to vote for Gore/Lieberman.[39]

References

  1. ↑ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". Presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  2. ↑ One elector abstained in the official tally
  3. ↑ "West Memphis Kerrey bows out of 2000 presidential race". CNN. December 13, 1998.
  4. ↑ York, Anthony (September 2, 1999) "Life of the Party?" Salon News.
  5. ↑ Dessauer, Carin (April 8, 1998). "Wellstone Launches Presidential Exploratory Committee". CNN.
  6. ↑ "Gore, Lieberman prepare for public debut of Democratic ticket". CNN. August 8, 2000. Archived from the original on November 5, 2008.
  7. ↑ "Statement of Candidacy". Federal Election Commission. Retrieved October 5, 2011.
  8. ↑ Frontline. The Choice. Boston. October 12, 2004. PBS. WGBH-TV.
  9. ↑ "Interview with John McCain". Dadmag.com. June 4, 2000. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  10. ↑ Holmes, Steven A. "After Campaigning on Candor, McCain Admits He Lacked It on Confederate Flag Issue. The New York Times. 2000-04-20. Retrieved 2015-06-19.
  11. ↑ Confessore, Nicholas; Haberman, Maggie (2015-08-09). "Donald Trump Remains Defiant on News Programs Amid G.O.P. Backlash". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-08-25. Mr. Trump's flirtations with presidential runs span decades—and parties. In 1999, he left the Republican Party to become a member of the Reform Party
  12. ↑ "Trump officially joins Reform Party". CNN. 1999-10-25. Retrieved 2015-08-25. Trump has not yet formally declared he would seek the Reform Party nomination, but he announced Sunday he was quitting the Republican Party
  13. ↑ "Q&A with Socialist Party presidential candidate Brian Moore". Independent Weekly. October 8, 2008.
  14. ↑ "Green Party Presidential Ticket – President: Ralph Nader, Vice President: Winona LaDuke". Thegreenpapers.com. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Libertarian Party Presidential Ticket – President: Harry Browne, Vice President: Art Olivier". The Green Papers. 3 July 2000. Retrieved 15 January 2011.
  16. ↑ "Libertarian Party Presidential Ticket". The Green Papers. 2 July 2000. Retrieved 16 November 2008.
  17. 1 2 "Bob Bickford "2000 Presidential Status Summary (table)" ''Ballot Access News'' June 29, 2000". Web.archive.org. October 1, 2000. Archived from the original on September 17, 2002. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
  18. ↑ Richard Winger""Natural Law Convention" Ballot Access News October 1, 2000 Volume 16, Number 7". Archived from the original on June 18, 2002. Retrieved June 18, 2002.
  19. ↑ "The Second Gore-Bush Presidential Debate". 2000 Debate Transcript. Commission on Presidential Debates. 2004. Archived from the original on April 3, 2005. Retrieved October 21, 2005.
  20. ↑ "Election 2000 Archive". CNN/AllPolitics.com. Archived from the original on July 30, 2008. Retrieved November 16, 2008.
  21. ↑ Rather, Dan. CBSNews.com. Out of the Shadows. August 9, 2000.
  22. ↑ The New York Times. When a Kiss Isn't Just a Kiss. August 20, 2000.
  23. ↑ "Greens.org". Greens.org. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  24. ↑ Jacob Weisberg (November 8, 2000). "Slate.com". Slate.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  25. ↑ "Nigerdeltacongress.com". Nigerdeltacongress.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  26. ↑ "GOP Group To Air Pro-Nader TV Ads". Washingtonpost.com. 2000-10-27. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  27. ↑ "The 2000 Campaign: Campaign Briefing Published". The New York Times. September 5, 2000. Retrieved March 25, 2008.
  28. ↑ "Commission on Presidential Debates". Debates.org. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
  29. ↑ "Commission on Presidential Debates". Debates.org. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
  30. ↑ "Commission on Presidential Debates". Debates.org. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
  31. ↑ "Commission on Presidential Debates". Debates.org. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
  32. 1 2 "Open Debates | What Happened in 2000?". opendebates.org. 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  33. ↑ Goldberg, Carey (October 5, 2000). "THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE GREEN PARTY; Nader Wants Apology From Debate Panel for Turning Him Away". The New York Times. New York: NYTC. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  34. ↑ Nader, Ralph (2002). "Crashing the Party". naderlibrary.com. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  35. ↑ Winger, Richard (2002). "Ballot Access News – May 1, 2002". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on June 4, 2003. Retrieved August 13, 2012.
  36. ↑ "SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. No. 00-949 (00A504) Bush v. Gore, On Application For Stay" (PDF). December 9, 2000.
  37. ↑ "2000 Presidential General Election Results". fec.gov.
  38. ↑ "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections - Compare Data". uselectionatlas.org.
  39. ↑ Dizikes, Peter (2006-01-06). "Electoral College Puts Bush Over the Top - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  40. ↑ "Maine General Election Tabulations, President of the United States by Congressional District". November 7, 2000.
  41. ↑ "Nebraska Statewide General Election 2000 Results - President by Congressional District" (PDF). Nebraska Secretary of State.
  42. ↑ Ian Christopher McCaleb (December 13, 2000). "Bush, now president-elect, signals will to bridge partisan gaps". CNN.com. Retrieved February 10, 2009.
  43. ↑ "Bush Acceptance—December 13, 2000".
  44. ↑ "George W. Bush statement—December 13, 2000". CNN. Archived from the original on December 12, 2008.
  45. ↑ "FDsys - Browse CREC". Gpo.gov. 2001-01-06. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  46. ↑ "Media Recount: Bush Won The 2000 election". PBS.
  47. 1 2 "Who Won the Election? Who Cares?". Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
  48. ↑ "Florida Ballots Project". National Opinion Research Center. Archived from the original on December 17, 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2010.
  49. ↑ Wolter, K.M., Jergovic, D., Moore, W., Murphy, J. and O'Muirheartaigh, C. 2003. "Reliability of the Uncertified Ballots in the 2000 Presidential Election in Florida". American Statistician. 57(1):1–14.
  50. ↑ Freeman, Steven & Bleifuss, Joel. Was the 2000 Presidential Election Stolen?: Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count. Seven Stories Press, 2006, pp. 41-47.
  51. ↑ "The Final Word? New Documents Raise Questions About News Media's Findings On The 2000 Presidential Election" (archived from the original on 2008-10-30)
  52. ↑ deHaven-Smith, Lance. The Battle for Florida: An Annotated Compendium of Materials from the 2000 Presidential Election. University Press of Florida, 2005, p. 39.
  53. ↑ "Florida's ex-convicts seek right to vote". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  54. ↑ Matt Ford, "Restoring Voting Rights for Felons in Maryland", The Atlantic, 9 February 2016, accessed 23 March 2016
  55. ↑ Brent Staples, "Florida Leads the Pack – in Felon Disenfranchisement", New York Times, 7 November 2014, accessed 23 March 2016
  56. ↑ Freeman, Steven & Bleifuss, Joel. Was the 2004 election stolen?: exit polls, election fraud, and the official count. Seven Stories Press, 2006, p. 68-83.
  57. ↑ Uscinski, Joseph. 2007. "Too Close Too Call? Uncertainty and Bias in Election Night Reporting" Social Science Quarterly vol. 88,(1).
  58. ↑ "Overvote county summary". USA Today. May 10, 2001.
  59. ↑ "This Modern World". Salon.com Comics.
  60. ↑ "Nader Unrepentant". Mother Jones. 2013-07-27. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  61. ↑ "Building A New Progressive Majority by Al From". DLC. January 24, 2001. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  62. ↑ "Democratic Leadership Council: Blueprint Magazine". Ndol.org. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
  63. ↑ http://www.salon.com/2000/11/28/hightower/
  64. ↑ Farnsworth, S.J.; Lichter, S.R. (2007). The Nightly News Nightmare: Network Television's Coverage of US Presidential Elections, 1988–2004. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 159–160. ISBN 9780742553774.
  65. 1 2 3 Peter Hart; Jim Naureckas (January 1, 2001). "Serial Exaggerators: Media's double standard on political lying". FAIR.
  66. 1 2 Robert Parry (April 2000). "He's No Pinocchio: How the press exaggerated Al Gores exaggerations". Washington Monthly.
  67. 1 2 3 Boehlert, Eric, (December 6, 2001), "The Press v. Al Gore", Rolling Stone

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