2000 Presidential Election in Virginia

*Main Article: [[2000 Presidential Election]]*
The **2000 United States presidential election in Virginia** took place on November 7, 2000, and was part of the 2000 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Virginia, a state that hadn't gone any of the left-leaning parties since 1984, was won by President Tolles by 55 percent to Yuno Yura's 42 percent, a 13-percent margin of victory. Due to Virginia's system of allocating electoral votes proportionally, Yuno was able to win five electoral votes while Jill Tolles received the state's other eight electoral votes.

## Analysis

Virginia was one of the few states where President Tolles outperformed her original showing in 1996, against Senator Adam Smith, with a 13 percent margin compared to the previous 8 point victory. Prior to the election, most news organizations considered this a state Tolles would win, or a "safe orange" state. No candidates visited Virginia during the General Election season.

Jill Tolles did well throughout the state, despite her loss to Virgil Goode in the state during the primary season. She managed to take most of the populous counties, such as Fairfax, Loudon, Henrico, and Princess Anne, which helped contribute to her win. Tolles's appeal to Northern Virginia managed to also help her run up the numbers in Yuno, appealing to a large voter base, with much of the Commonwealth's voting population. In Hampton Roads, Tolles would pull large vote totals out of suburban counties and Independent Cities, such as Virginia Beach, Princess Anne, Chesapeake, Warwick, and Nansemond. Yuno did perform well in urban centers, such as Richmond, Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, and Alexandria, as well as get many voters from the Appalachian plateau, but Tolles' large margins in Northern Virginia, namely Fairfax and Loudon, coupled with her totals in Hampton Roads would help boost her numbers against Yuno's and push her to an easy electoral victory.

## General Election

Candidate Ballot Access:

Jill Tolles and Joseph Smith, American Front

Yuno Yura and Kushina Uzumaki, Progressive

Steve Bannon and Donald P. Wagner, One America

## Progressive Primary

Five candidates appeared on the ballot, Katherine Amir, Steve Bullock, Adam Smith, Kushina Uzumaki, and Yuno Yura. The Virginia Progressive primary had 99 delegates to the Progressive National Convention; all pledged delegates. The state's delegates were allocated winner-take-all based on the who won the plurality of voters in the statewide popular vote.

Yuno Yura managed to upset major candidates, such as the former Virginia Governor Kushina Uzumaki and New Jersey Governor Katherine Amir, both favored to win, after aggressively contesting the state against them in the primary. All 99 delegates were thus pledged to her to the National Convention.

## American Front Primary

Two candidates appeared on the ballot, Jill Tolles and Virgil Goode. 49 delegates from the state were up for grabs, and they were likewise allocated in a winner-take-all fashion.

Congressman Virgil Goode managed to beat the incumbent President in the primary after a long contest. His appeal to many working-class Virginians and it being in his voting base of the Northeast contributed to his win in Virginia, along with him out-fundraising and visiting the state much more than Tolles.

## Electors

Technically the voters of Virginia cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. The Commonwealth is allocated 13 electors because it has 11 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 13 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the Commonwealth is awarded a majority of the electors, proportional to the percentage of the vote in the Commonwealth, while the rest are dispersed to other candidates, following the proportional method. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2000, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead, the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

8 Electors were pledged to Jill Tolles and Joseph Smith while 5 Electors were pledged to Yuno Yura and Kushina Uzumaki. One elector pledged for Jill Tolles attempted to break from the pledge and cast a faithless vote for Congressman and former candidate, Virgil Goode, but was quickly disqualified by the Tolles campaign and replaced with another elector.