2000 United States presidential election in Florida explained

Election Name:	2000 United States presidential election in Florida
Country:	Florida
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1996 United States presidential election in Florida
Previous Year:	1996
Election Date:	November 7, 2000
Next Election:	2004 United States presidential election in Florida
Next Year:	2004
Turnout:	70% ^[1]
Image1:	Official Portrait- President George Walker Bush, 43rd President of the United States, Republican - DPLA - 7482eac0e113bf03014d1686a3733f97.jpeg
Nominee1:	George W. Bush
Party1:	Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:	Texas
Running Mate1:	Dick Cheney
Electoral Vote1:	25
Popular Vote1:	2,912,790
Percentage1:	48.847%
Nominee2:	Al Gore
Party2:	Democratic Party (United States)
Home State2:	Tennessee
Running Mate2:	Joe Lieberman
Electoral Vote2:	0
Popular Vote2:	2,912,253
Percentage2:	48.838%
Map Size:	401px
President
Before Election:	Bill Clinton
Before Party:	Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:	George W. Bush
After Party:	Republican Party (United States)

The 2000 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 7, 2000, as part of the nationwide presidential election. Florida, a swing state, had a major recount dispute that took center stage in the election. The outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election was not known for more than a month after balloting because of the extended process of counting and recounting Florida's presidential ballots. State results tallied on election night gave 246 electoral votes to Republican nominee Texas Governor George W. Bush and 255 to Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore, with New Mexico (5), Oregon (7), and Florida (25) too close to call that evening. Gore won New Mexico and Oregon over the following few days, but the result in Florida was decisive, regardless of how those two states had voted.

After an intense recount process and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore, Bush won Florida's electoral votes by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost six million cast (0.009%) and, as a result, became the president-elect. The process was extremely divisive and led to calls for electoral reform in Florida. Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Palm Beach County since the county's founding in 1909. If Gore had won the recount, then he would have won the election with a total of 292 electoral votes, and Bush would have lost with 246 electoral votes.

The final official Florida count gave the victory to Bush by 537 votes, making it by percentage not only the closest state of the election (New Mexico was decided by 366 votes but has a much smaller population, representing a 0.061% margin), but also the closest of any state in any United States presidential election ever. This was the closest margin in any tipping point state in history, surpassing the record of the 1876 United States presidential election in South Carolina.

, this is the last election in which the Democratic candidate won Pasco County and Hernando County.^[2] It was also the first time the Democratic candidate won Orange County since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944. This county, along with Charles County, Maryland, were the only two Gore flipped from the previous election.^[3]

Campaign

Initially, Florida had been considered fertile territory for Republicans. It was governed by Jeb Bush, a staunch conservative^[4] and George W. Bush's brother. Nonetheless, Republicans put significant advertising resources into the state, and later polls indicated that the state was very much in play as late as September 2000.^[5] Some late momentum for Gore and his Jewish running mate Joe Lieberman may have come from southern Florida's significant Jewish population.^[6] Voters from reliably Democratic states in the Northeast had also been migrating to Florida since the 1950s. The state's electorate was becoming more diverse in general, with growing Asian and Hispanic immigrant populations.

Meanwhile, there was a heavy backlash in the Cuban-American population against Democrats during the Elian Gonzalez dispute, during which Janet Reno, President Bill Clinton's Attorney General, ordered the six-year-old Cuban refugee to be returned to Cuba. The Democrats' share of the Cuban-American vote dropped dramatically after 1996.^[7]

In late October, one poll found that Gore was leading Bush and third parties by 44–42–4 among registered voters and 46–42–4 among likely voters, but that poll had a margin of error of four percentage points, making the race too close to call.^[8]

On election day itself, the extent of the mix-ups in the electoral rolls was such that "in a number of precincts in Florida's inner cities, the polling locations were heavily fortified with police."

Results

2000 United States presidential election in Florida^[9] ^[10]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George W. Bush	Dick Cheney	2,912,790	48.847%	25
	Democratic	Al Gore	Joe Lieberman	2,912,253	48.838%	0
	Green	Ralph Nader	Winona LaDuke	97,488	1.64%	0
	Reform	Patrick Buchanan	Ezola Foster	17,484	0.29%	0
	Libertarian	Harry Browne	Art Olivier	16,415	0.28%	0
	Natural Law	John Hagelin	Nat Goldhaber	2,281	0.04%	0
	Workers World	Monica Moorehead	Gloria La Riva	1,804	0.03%	0
	Constitution	Howard Phillips	Curtis Frazier	1,371	0.02%	0
	Socialist	David McReynolds	Mary Cal Hollis	622	0.01%	0
	Socialist Workers	James Harris	Margaret Trowe	562	0.01%	0
Write-in				36	<0.01%	—
Totals				5,963,110	100.00%	25

Florida was the second of the 50 states (after Louisiana) to report its official results to the federal government (in a Certificate of Ascertainment submitted to the National Archivist, the manner prescribed for presidential elections).

Results by county

County	George W. Bush Republican		Al Gore Democratic		Ralph Nader Green		Pat Buchanan Reform		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total
		%		%		%		%		%		%
	Alachua		34,135		39.80%		47,380		55.25%		3,228		3.76%		263		0.31%		751		0.88%		-13,245		-15.45%		85,757
	Baker		5,611		68.80%		2,392		29.33%		53		0.65%		73		0.90%		26		0.32%		3,219		39.47%		8,155
	Bay		38,682		65.70%		18,873		32.06%		830		1.41%		248		0.42%		243		0.41%		19,809		33.64%		58,876
	Bradford		5,416		62.43%		3,075		35.45%		84		0.97%		65		0.75%		35		0.40%		2,341		26.98%		8,675
	Brevard		115,253		52.75%		97,341		44.55%		4,471		2.05%		571		0.26%		852		0.39%		17,912		8.20%		218,488
	Broward		177,939		30.93%		387,760		67.41%		7,105		1.24%		795		0.14%		1,640		0.29%		-209,821		-36.48%		575,239
	Calhoun		2,873		55.52%		2,156		41.66%		39		0.75%		90		1.74%		17		0.33%		717		13.86%		5,175
	Charlotte		35,428		52.96%		29,646		44.31%		1,462		2.19%		182		0.27%		182		0.27%		5,782		8.65%		66,900
	Citrus		29,801		52.06%		25,531		44.60%		1,383		2.42%		270		0.47%		263		0.46%		4,270		7.46%		57,248
	Clay		41,903		72.80%		14,668		25.48%		565		0.98%		186		0.32%		237		0.41%		27,235		47.32%		57,559
	Collier		60,467		65.58%		29,939		32.47%		1,405		1.52%		122		0.13%		269		0.29%		30,528		33.11%		92,202
	Columbia		10,968		59.24%		7,049		38.07%		258		1.39%		89		0.48%		150		0.81%		3,919		21.17%		18,514
	Desoto		4,256		54.48%		3,321		42.51%		157		2.01%		36		0.46%		42		0.54%		935		11.97%		7,812
	Dixie		2,697		57.79%		1,827		39.15%		75		1.61%		29		0.62%		39		0.84%		870		18.64%		4,667
	Duval		152,460		57.49%		108,039		40.74%		2,762		1.04%		653		0.25%		1,267		0.48%		44,421		16.75%		265,181
	Escambia		73,171		62.62%		40,990		35.08%		1,733		1.48%		502		0.43%		460		0.39%		32,181		27.54%		116,856
	Flagler		12,618		46.53%		13,897		51.25%		435		1.60%		83		0.31%		83		0.31%		-1,279		-4.72%		27,116
	Franklin		2,454		52.83%		2,047		44.07%		85		1.83%		33		0.71%		26		0.56%		407		8.76%		4,645
	Gadsden		4,770		32.38%		9,736		66.09%		139		0.94%		38		0.26%		48		0.33%		-4,966		-33.71%		14,731
	Gilchrist		3,300		61.17%		1,910		35.40%		97		1.80%		29		0.54%		59		1.09%		1,390		25.77%		5,395
	Glades		1,841		54.71%		1,442		42.85%		56		1.66%		9		0.27%		17		0.51%		399		11.86%		3,365
	Gulf		3,553		57.79%		2,398		39.00%		86		1.40%		71		1.15%		40		0.65%		1,155		18.79%		6,148
	Hamilton		2,147		54.14%		1,723		43.44%		37		0.93%		23		0.58%		36		0.91%		424		10.70%		3,966
	Hardee		3,765		60.38%		2,342		37.56%		75		1.20%		30		0.48%		24		0.38%		1,423		22.82%		6,236
	Hendry		4,747		58.32%		3,240		39.81%		104		1.28%		22		0.27%		26		0.32%		1,507		18.51%		8,139
	Hernando		30,658		47.00%		32,648		50.05%		1,501		2.30%		243		0.37%		186		0.29%		-1,990		-3.05%		65,236
	Highlands		20,207		57.48%		14,169		40.31%		545		1.55%		127		0.36%		104		0.30%		6,038		17.17%		35,152
	Hillsborough		180,794		50.17%		169,576		47.06%		7,496		2.08%		847		0.24%		1,641		0.46%		11,218		3.11%		360,354
	Holmes		5,012		67.77%		2,177		29.43%		94		1.27%		76		1.03%		37		0.50%		2,835		38.34%		7,396
	Indian River		28,639		57.71%		19,769		39.84%		950		1.91%		105		0.21%		164		0.33%		8,870		17.87%		49,627
	Jackson		9,139		56.06%		6,870		42.14%		138		0.85%		102		0.63%		54		0.33%		2,269		13.92%		16,303
	Jefferson		2,478		43.91%		3,041		53.89%		76		1.35%		29		0.51%		19		0.34%		-563		-9.98%		5,643
	Lafayette		1,670		66.67%		789		31.50%		26		1.04%		10		0.40%		10		0.40%		881		35.17%		2,505
	Lake		50,010		56.44%		36,571		41.27%		1,460		1.65%		289		0.33%		281		0.32%		13,439		15.17%		88,611
	Lee		106,151		57.57%		73,571		39.90%		3,588		1.95%		305		0.17%		785		0.43%		32,580		17.67%		184,400
	Leon		39,073		37.88%		61,444		59.57%		1,934		1.87%		282		0.27%		421		0.41%		-22,371		-21.69%		103,154
	Levy		6,863		53.91%		5,398		42.40%		285		2.24%		67		0.53%		117		0.92%		1,465		11.51%		12,730
	Liberty		1,317		54.65%		1,017		42.20%		19		0.79%		39		1.62%		18		0.75%		300		12.45%		2,410
	Madison		3,038		49.29%		3,015		48.92%		54		0.88%		29		0.47%		27		0.44%		23		0.37%		6,163
	Manatee		58,023		52.58%		49,226		44.61%		2,494		2.26%		271		0.25%		330		0.30%		8,797		7.97%		110,344
	Marion		55,146		53.55%		44,674		43.39%		1,810		1.76%		563		0.55%		778		0.76%		10,472		10.16%		102,971
	Martin		33,972		54.78%		26,621		42.93%		1,118		1.80%		112		0.18%		193		0.31%		7,351		11.85%		62,016
	Miami-Dade		289,574		46.29%		328,867		52.57%		5,355		0.86%		560		0.09%		1,196		0.19%		-39,293		-6.28%		625,552
	Monroe		16,063		47.39%		16,487		48.64%		1,090		3.22%		47		0.14%		208		0.61%		-424		-1.25%		33,895
	Nassau		16,408		68.98%		6,955		29.24%		253		1.06%		90		0.38%		81		0.34%		9,453		39.74%		23,787
	Okaloosa		52,186		73.69%		16,989		23.99%		988		1.40%		268		0.38%		388		0.55%		35,197		49.70%		70,819
	Okeechobee		5,057		51.32%		4,589		46.57%		131		1.33%		43		0.44%		34		0.35%		468		4.75%		9,854
	Orange		134,531		48.02%		140,236		50.06%		3,879		1.38%		446		0.16%		1,063		0.38%		-5,705		-2.04%		280,155
	Osceola		26,237		47.11%		28,187		50.61%		733		1.32%		145		0.26%		388		0.70%		-1,950		-3.50%		55,690
	Palm Beach		152,964		35.31%		269,754		62.27%		5,566		1.28%		3,411		0.79%		1,527		0.35%		-116,790		-26.96%		433,222
	Pasco		68,607		48.05%		69,576		48.73%		3,394		2.38%		570		0.40%		622		0.44%		-969		-0.68%		142,769
	Pinellas		184,849		46.38%		200,657		50.35%		10,023		2.52%		1,013		0.25%		1,984		0.50%		-15,808		-3.97%		398,526
	Polk		90,310		53.56%		75,207		44.60%		2,059		1.22%		533		0.32%		520		0.31%		15,103		8.96%		168,629
	Putnam		13,457		51.29%		12,107		46.14%		379		1.44%		148		0.56%		148		0.56%		1,350		5.15%		26,239
	Santa Rosa		36,339		72.10%		12,818		25.43%		726		1.44%		311		0.62%		208		0.41%		23,521		46.67%		50,402
	Sarasota		83,117		51.63%		72,869		45.27%		4,071		2.53%		305		0.19%		615		0.38%		10,248		6.36%		160,977
	Seminole		75,790		55.00%		59,227		42.98%		1,949		1.41%		195		0.14%		644		0.47%		16,563		12.02%		137,805
	St. Johns		39,564		65.10%		19,509		32.10%		1,217		2.00%		229		0.38%		252		0.41%		20,055		33.00%		60,771
	St. Lucie		34,705		44.50%		41,560		53.29%		1,368		1.75%		124		0.16%		233		0.30%		-6,855		-8.79%		77,990
	Sumter		12,127		54.48%		9,637		43.29%		306		1.37%		114		0.51%		77		0.35%		2,490		11.19%		22,261
	Suwannee		8,009		64.27%		4,076		32.71%		180		1.44%		108		0.87%		88		0.71%		3,933		31.56%		12,461
	Taylor		4,058		59.59%		2,649		38.90%		59		0.87%		27		0.40%		17		0.25%		1,409		20.69%		6,810
	Union		2,332		60.95%		1,407		36.77%		33		0.86%		37		0.97%		17		0.44%		925		24.18%		3,826
	Volusia		82,368		44.84%		97,313		52.98%		2,910		1.58%		498		0.27%		585		0.32%		-14,945		-8.14%		183,674
	Wakulla		4,512		52.54%		3,838		44.70%		149		1.74%		46		0.54%		42		0.49%		674		7.84%		8,587
	Walton		12,186		66.51%		5,643		30.80%		265		1.45%		120		0.65%		109		0.59%		6,543		35.71%		18,323
	Washington		4,995		62.24%		2,798		34.86%		93		1.16%		88		1.10%		52		0.65%		2,197		27.38%		8,026
Totals	2,912,790	48.85%	2,912,253	48.84%	97,488	1.63%	17,484	0.29%	23,095	0.39%	537	0.01%	5,963,110

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Calhoun (Largest city: Blountstown)
• Citrus (Largest city: Homosassa Springs)
• Dixie (Largest city: Cross City)
• Franklin (Largest city: Eastpoint)
• Gilchrist (Largest city: Trenton)
• Glades (Largest city: Moore Haven)
• Gulf (Largest city: Port St. Joe)
• Hamilton (Largest city: Jasper)
• Hendry (Largest city: Clewiston)
• Hillsborough (Largest city: Tampa)
• Levy (Largest city: Williston)
• Madison (Largest city: Madison)
• Okeechobee (Largest city: Okeechobee)
• Putnam (Largest city: Palatka)
• Sumter (Largest city: The Villages)
• Taylor (Largest city: Perry)
• Wakulla (Largest city: Sopchoppy)

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Orange (Largest city: Orlando)

By congressional district

Bush won 13 of 23 congressional districts. Gore won 10, including three that elected Republicans.^{[11] [12]}

District	Bush	Gore	Representative
		68%	30%		Joe Scarborough
		48%	49%		Allen Boyd
		37%	62%		Corrine Brown
	63%	35%		Tillie K. Fowler
			Ander Crenshaw
		46%	50%		Karen Thurman
		58%	39%		Cliff Stearns
		50%	48%		John Mica
	53%	45%		Bill McCollum
			Ric Keller
		52%	45%		Michael Bilirakis
		44%	53%		Bill Young
		44%	53%		Jim Davis
	55%	43%		Charles Canady
			Adam Putnam
		52%	45%		Dan Miller
		59%	38%		Porter Goss
		53%	44%		Dave Weldon
		46%	52%		Mark Foley
		15%	84%		Carrie Meek
		61%	38%		Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
		30%	69%		Robert Wexler
		36%	63%		Peter Deutsch
		62%	37%		Lincoln Diaz-Balart
		39%	58%		E. Clay Shaw Jr.
		19%	79%		Alcee Hastings

Electors

See main article: List of 2000 United States presidential electors.

Technically, the voters of Florida cast their ballots for electors, representatives to the Electoral College. In 2000, Florida was allocated 25 electors because it had 23 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 25 electors who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the most votes in the state is awarded all 25 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. 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 18, 2000,^[13] 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.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All were pledged to and voted for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney:^[14]

1. Alred S. Austin
2. Deborah L. Brooks
3. Armando Codina
4. Maria De La Milera
5. Sandra M. Faulkner
6. Thomas C. Feeney III
7. Feliciano M. Foyo
8. Jeanne Barber Godwin
9. Dawn Guzzetta
10. Cynthia M. Handley
11. Adam W. Herbert
12. Al Hoffman
13. Glenda E. Hood
14. Carole Jean Jordan
15. Charles W. Kane
16. Mel Martinez
17. John M. McKay
18. Dorsey C. Miller
19. Berta J. Moralejo
20. H. Gary Morse
21. Marsha Nippert
22. Darryl K. Sharpton
23. Tom Slade
24. John Thrasher
25. Robert L. Woody

Analysis

Background

See also: Florida Central Voter File.

Election fairness was a major problem known to Floridians in the 1990s; for example, the 1997 Miami mayoral election was tainted by scandal.^[15] According to The Palm Beach Post, "State lawmakers decided to weed out felons and other ineligible voters in 1998 after a Miami mayoral election was overturned because votes had been cast by the convicted and the dead."^[16]

This initiative occurred without sufficient protection of voting rights. In particular, from summer 1999 to spring 2000, Florida's voter list was subject to an unusually high number of problems. "The state's highest officials responsible for ensuring efficiency, uniformity, and fairness in the election failed to fulfill their responsibilities."^[17] The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that an "overall lack of leadership in protecting voting rights was largely responsible for the broad array of problems in Florida during the 2000 election."^[17]

Michael Moore in his 2001 book Stupid White Men described allegations of efforts to deny black citizens in Florida the right to vote. As a result of the state's contract with Database Technologies, "173,000 registered voters in Florida were permanently wiped off the voter rolls"^[18] and after an elections supervisor in Madison County was barred from voting; she and others "tried to get the state to rectify the problem, but their pleas fell on deaf ears."^[18]

Recount

See main article: 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida. The Florida election was closely scrutinized after Election Day. Due to the narrow margin of the original vote count, Florida Election Code 102.141 mandated a statewide machine recount, which began the day after the election. It was ostensibly completed on November 10 in the 66 Florida counties that used vote-counting machines and reduced Bush's lead to 327 votes. According to legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, later analysis showed that a total of 18 counties—accounting for a quarter of all votes cast in Florida—did not carry out the legally mandated machine recount, but "No one from the Gore campaign ever challenged this view" that the machine recount had been completed. Once the closeness of the election in Florida was clear, both the Bush and Gore campaigns organized themselves for the ensuing legal process. On November 9, the Bush campaign announced they had hired George H. W. Bush's former Secretary of State James Baker and Republican political consultant Roger Stone to oversee their legal team, and the Gore campaign hired Bill Clinton's former Secretary of State Warren Christopher.

Film

• Fahrenheit 9/11
• Recount is a made-for-TV political drama about the 2000 US presidential election. The show was written by Danny Strong, directed by Jay Roach, and produced by Kevin Spacey (who also stars in the film). It premiered on HBO on May 25, 2008, and the DVD was released on August 19, 2008.
• Orwell Rolls in His Grave

Bibliography

• Book: Ceaser, James W.. Busch. Andrew. The Perfect Tie: The True Story of the 2000 Presidential Election. registration. perfect tie.. Lanham, Maryland. Rowman & Littlefield. 2001. 0-7425-0836-6.
• Keating, Dan and Balz, Dan. 'Florida Recounts Would Have Favored Bush But Study Finds Gore Might Have Won Statewide Tally of All Uncounted Ballots.' The Washington Post, published Nov. 12, 2001.
• See also

External links

• Bush v. Gore
• Presidential Election Law

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2021. Voter Turnout. live. Florida Division of Elections. https://web.archive.org/web/20150602000936/http://dos.myflorida.com:80/elections/data-statistics/elections-data/voter-turnout/ . June 2, 2015 .
2. Sullivan, Robert David; 'How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century'; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
3. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, p. 164-165
4. Web site: Andrew. Prokop. The Jeb Bush formula: How the staunch conservative learned to talk moderate — and win. Vox. June 15, 2015. 2020-10-20.
5. News: THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE AD CAMPAIGN; In Sign Florida Is Now in Play, Bush Increases Buying There . The New York Times . Peter . Marks . September 20, 2000 . May 26, 2010.
6. Web site: Did the Jewish Vote Cost Gore the Election? . Mitchellbard.com . 2018-03-30.
7. News: Schneider . William . 2001-05-01 . Elián González Defeated Al Gore . en . The Atlantic . 2021-09-21.
8. News: THE 2000 CAMPAIGN: THE VOTERS; Independents and the Elderly Lift Gore in Florida, Poll Says . The New York Times . David E. . Rosenbaum . October 26, 2000.
9. Web site: 2000 Presidential General Election Results. https://web.archive.org/web/20120825102042/http://www.fec.gov/pubrec/2000presgeresults.htm. dead. August 25, 2012. transition.fec.gov. October 2, 2019.
10. Web site: November 7, 2000 General Election. Elections. Division of. results.elections.myflorida.com. 2017-06-11.
11. Web site: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections – County Data. October 2, 2019.
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20061002100852/http://www.flsenate.gov/data/redistricting_data/current_maps/current_congressional/PUBC0000_stats.pdf Florida Congressional District 2
13. Web site: 2000 Post-Election Timeline of Events . Uselectionatlas.org . 2018-03-30.
14. Web site: 2000 . President Elect . 2012-11-06 . 2018-03-30 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120212174238/http://presidentelect.org/e2000.html . February 12, 2012 . dead .
15. State and Wire Reports, "State voter rolls: Election official finds more than 50,000 felons, 18,000 dead registered", Panama City News Herald, 19 August 1998.
16. Web site: Felon Purge Sacrificed Innocent Voters. archive.commondreams.org. October 2, 2019. November 5, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201105110402/https://archive.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/headlines01/0527-03.htm. dead.
17. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Government of the United States. June 2001. Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election.
18. Book: Moore, M. . 2001. Stupid White Men. Penguin Books. 6.