How Long Did The 2000 Presidential Election Results Take? A Look Back At The Last Contentious U.S. Presidential Election
By October 22, 2020
What happened in the 2000 presidential election? Decades after the event that left Americans weary of the term "hanging chad," the dealings that led to the George W. Bush presidency are still murky. After three weeks of arguing over 537 votes, the state of Florida decided that Bush won the night, handing over its 25 electoral votes, but that was after a wild election night, a rescinded concession, and an argument over the popular vote which has hounded American politics ever since. How was the 2000 presidential election decided between George W. Bush and Al Gore? We'll break it down so it all (mostly) makes sense.
Too Early To Call
The surprise wasn't that Gore and Bush were locked in a close race—that made sense to everyone. Gore was running on a platform that was slightly further left than his predecessor's, and Bush's campaign struck all the right notes for the G.O.P. There was genuine excitement leading up to the 2000 election, but poll after poll showed voters in a deadlock, so possibly out of fatigue, networks called the election for Gore as early as 8:00 P.M. E.T. on election night.
Rather than put the matter to rest, however, all hell broke loose. Karl Rove, then-governor Bush's chief strategist, called Fox News himself, insisting that the election wasn't over because Florida was still counting their ballots and the decision to announce Gore as the winner was based on skewed exit polls of young people, women, and voters of color. After Rove's call to Fox, news organizations began reversing their decisions or waiting to call the election until they had a definite answer.
It Had To Be Florida
The race was tight across the country, but in 2000, Florida emerged as a must-win state for the presidency. As far as swing states go, Florida is the swingiest, with no real voting consistency. Even though we think of Florida as a conservative stronghold post-2000, it was a key factor in Obama's victories in the 2008 and 2012 elections, so even today, guessing how Florida is going to play out is a fool's errand.
In 2000, Gore won the popular vote on a national scale but needed Florida's electoral votes to win the election. The networks initially announced that Gore won the Sunshine State, but they changed their tune to announce a lead for Bush later in the evening. They seemed so sure that Gore conceded the election, but after it was announced that fewer than 600 votes separated the candidates, Gore retracted his concession at about 3:00 A.M. on November 8.
