CURRENT EVENTS UPDATE

Imagine for a moment what it was like to be Al Gore on the morning after Election Day. The man who said the presidential election wasn’t a popularity contest had won the popular vote. He collected more votes than Bill Clinton ever did, more than any other Democrat in history. But like his father before him, he could not hold on to his home state of Tennessee. The most fervent environmentalist in national politics was foiled by the Green Party; the guy who made his name investigating tainted baby formula and influence peddling by the contact-lens industry lost thousands of precious votes to Ralph Nader, a mischievous consumer advocate. Gore is the one who campaigned as though every vote counted—and he was right.

Now imagine what it was like to be George W. Bush. He had led for 20 out of the last 26 weeks in the polls, and his top advisers had promised he would win it in a walk. Now his life depended on the outcome in Florida—a state governed by his brother. His entire message was built around the promise to heal the divide and restore faith in a system that seemed cracked. Then the count came in and the cracks got even deeper.

The rest of us woke up that Wednesday morning not knowing who would be the next leader of the free world—and not knowing when we would know.

The world’s greatest economic powerhouse, cradle of the information age, was counting ballots by hand. One hundred million people had voted, and the outcome danced in the margin of error. After 18 months and more than a billion dollars, the 2000 race for President had come down to just one five-thousandth of 1% of the vote. Gore’s lead in the popular vote tally was the fuel for his campaign’s demand for a manual recount in a number of Florida counties, for time to register the outcome of absentee ballots, and for the nation to display some patience during this process. And so the end of one campaign marked the beginning of another.

In public, the Bush position was essentially this: "We’ve won. Gore lost. And while we’re willing to have one recount because the public believes in fairness, don’t expect us to go along with this forever." The Bush team was willing to wait for the absentee ballots, but they objected to a hand recount.

That’s because those ballots frightened the Bush camp. On the confusing "punch card" ballots, some voters did not punch through the hole, leaving a little paper flap—known as a chad—hanging. A machine may not recognize this punch as a vote, but a human being might. Democrats argued that they could pick up one or two thousand votes this way. The first reports of the problem with the punchcard ballots came in to Gore headquarters at 6 a.m. on Election Day. "The ballots do not line up in the machine with the correct candidates," said Joan Joseph of the Palm Beach County Democratic Party. "People who think they are voting for Gore could be voting for Pat Buchanan, because the word Democrat is lined up with Buchanan."

Midafternoon, when the initial exit polls came in, the first hints of history in the making began to flicker through the nation’s e-mail system. They confirmed what some Bush aides had feared: that they had lost momentum in the closing days. Gore had hit Bush hard on not being ready to lead, on not even knowing that Social Security was a federal program. Bush and running mate Dick Cheney turned out to have four arrests between them. The news of Bush’s drunk-driving record, which made national headlines just days before the election, was hurting, said a senior Bush adviser.

Shortly after 8 p.m., the networks announced that Gore had carried Florida. The battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania soon went Gore’s way as well, and every anchor became a math teacher, showing how it was increasingly difficult for Bush to find the 270 electoral votes he would need to win. What the anchors did not know was that Voter News Service, which was providing the data, had a bad sample in Tampa and some faulty data in Jacksonville. Plus there were voters in Palm Beach who told the exit pollers that they had voted for Gore, when in fact their vote had registered for Buchanan.

Bush aides were beside themselves that the networks would call Florida even before polls had closed in the more heavily Republican panhandle, which is in the central time zone. Also, the raw numbers the Bush people were seeing were telling them they were slightly ahead of Gore statewide, not behind. Bush strategist Ed Gillespie called the networks to complain. "I don’t know how you can call a state that’s this close!" he exclaimed.

At 9:55 p.m., CNN took Florida back from Gore, and the other networks followed shortly, declaring it too close to call. By 1:30 a.m., most states had tumbled one way or the other, and both candidates had a total of 242 electoral votes. The counts were unimaginably close.

Less than an hour later, the networks gift-wrapped Florida once again and handed it to Bush, declaring him the new President. Gore, watching the final returns from Nashville, made it clear that he wanted to move with swift grace to say his goodbye to his waiting supporters and the country. After comforting his sobbing daughters, he turned his attention to writing his concession speech.

Gore called Bush around 2:30 a.m. to concede. "You’re a good man," Bush told him, and gave his best wishes to Tipper and the children. As Gore’s motorcade splashed through the rainy streets to the war memorial, traveling chief of staff Michael Feldman’s pager quivered. It was field director Michael Whouley, saying the situation had changed. According to the Florida Board of Elections website, the margin of votes separating Bush and Gore had dropped to 900—and within minutes, it was 500, then 200.

Under Florida law, a margin that slim triggers an automatic recount. Around 3:45, Gore got on the phone himself with the Governor. "As you may have noticed, things have changed," he said. If indeed the vote went to Bush, he’d be happy to concede and give him his support, but for now, "the state of Florida is too close to call," Gore said.

"Let me make sure I understand," Bush said, stunned. "You’re calling me back to retract your concession." "Well, there’s no reason to get snippy," Gore replied. He had to repeat himself—it’s too close to concede—a couple of times. Bush was confident that this time the networks were right, and the call ended abruptly. "Well, Mr. Vice President," Bush said, "you need to do what you have to do."

The rest of the world was dizzy. Foreign leaders had been sending Bush their congratulatory telegrams, and then had to call and retract them. The New York Times had to stop the presses; and once again, the networks retracted their projection on Florida, declaring the state too close to call. And that’s the way it remained for 36 days, until the Supreme Court put an end to the recounts, challenges and lawsuits that made Election 2000 the wildest presidential contest in U.S. history.

—TIME, November 20, 2000

Questions
1. Why did Al Gore call George W. Bush on Election Night to retract his concession?

2. What role did Ralph Nader play in the election?

TIME CLASSROOM