2000 United States presidential election

President of the United States

**November 7, 2000**

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## Overview

**Nominee**
**George W. Bush**
Al Gore

**Political party**
Republican
Democratic

**State**
Texas
Tennessee

**Running mate**
**Dick Cheney**
Joe Lieberman

**Electoral vote**
**271**
266

**Popular vote**
50,456,002
**50,999,897**

**Percentage**
47.9%
**48.4%**

**Nominee**
Ralph Nader

**Political party**
Green

**State**
Connecticut

**Running mate**
Winona LaDuke

**Electoral vote**
0

**Popular vote**
2,882,955

**Percentage**
2.7%

## Results

Red denotes states won by Bush/Cheney and blue denotes those won by Gore/Lieberman

### Elected President

Bill Clinton
Democratic
George W. Bush
Republican

The **2000 United States presidential election** was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, Governor of Texas and eldest son of former President George H. W. Bush, won the disputed election, defeating Democratic nominee Al Gore, the incumbent Vice President. It was the fourth American presidential election, and the first in 112 years, in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote, and is considered one of the closest elections in U.S. history. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader is sometimes blamed for Gore's electoral defeat.

## Results

Bush carried most of the Southern states by comfortable margins (including Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas) and also won 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 exception of New Hampshire, which Bush won narrowly), the Pacific Coast states, Hawaii, New Mexico, and most of the Upper Midwest.

Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote, he received 543,895 more popular votes than Bush, making him the first person since Grover Cleveland in 1888 to win the popular vote but lose in the Electoral College. 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.

The election ultimately came down to Florida, where the final result was slim enough to require a mandatory recount (by machine) under state law; Bush's lead dwindled to just over 300 votes when it was completed the day after the election. 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, who also co-chaired Bush's Florida campaign, announced she would reject any revised totals from those counties if they were not turned in by 5 p.m. on November 14, the statutory deadline for amended returns. The Supreme Court of Florida extended the deadline to November 26, a decision later vacated by the Supreme Court of the United States. On November 26, the state canvassing board certified Bush as the winner of Florida's electors by 537 votes, but 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 as undervotes by machine counters. On December 12, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Florida Supreme Court's ruling requiring a statewide recount of ballots was unconstitutional on equal protection grounds, and in a 5–4 vote reversed and remanded the case to the Florida Supreme Court. But with only two hours remaining until the December 12 deadline, the Supreme Court's order effectively ended the recount, and the previously certified total held, giving Bush Florida's 25 electoral votes and the election.

When the Electoral College met to vote, one faithless elector from Washington, D.C. cast a blank ballot to protest DC's lack of representation in Congress.