Presidential Election of 2000

This was one of the closest elections in the history of the United States. It was surprising that it happened in this particular era, nobody expected it to be this close, and it was quite interesting to watch. Here are some screen captures I took and other images for historical value:



November 7th, 2000...

The national vote is almost complete
Total votes for 96% reporting: Gore:49% Bush:48%
...final result: Gore wins the national vote by half a million votes.



Initial results for the state of Florida. Whoever would win Florida would
win the electoral college and hence would win the presidency.
100% reporting, tied at 49% - Bush:2,902,733 Gore:2,902,509




Of course with such a close result for the determining state, a recount was in order.
Bush leads Gore by 1,784, 53 of 67 counties reporting.




...and another recount; and another; and another; repeat for two weeks.
Bush leads Gore by 341, 63 of 67 counties reporting.



All sorts of drama unfolded as everything came down to West Palm Beach County, Florida. Allegations of voter fraud, disenfranchisement, ballots being destroyed, cheating, calling for revotes, and many claiming that this so called "butterfly ballot" was "fuzzy" and people voted for Buchanan instead of Gore by mistake.
The 'fuzzy' ballot



The recount process was stopped by the U.S. Supreme Court, who decided in a split decision (5-4) to award the presidency to George Bush. Many criticize the legality of the intervention. George Bush II became the 43rd president of the United States.

A few months later many newspapers and researchers who ran their own state-wide recounts concluded that Gore won Florida, and therefor the presidency. The issue of the legitimacy of Bush's victory, validity of electoral college, and conspiracy theories continued for months into his presidency. The deliberation of the legitimacy of Bush's presidency came to an end with the attacks of September 11th, at which point the country came strongly together. This is reflected in Bush's over 90% approval rating in late September/October 2001 - the highest approval rating of any president in history.





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