Campaign 2000 – the Recount

In a dead heat, the battle for the presidency has come down to who will win Florida.

With 25 Electoral College votes, Florida is needed by both candidates to reach the minimum 270 votes required for victory.

With less than 1/30 of a percent lead by Bush, Florida is mandated by state law to recount the votes. In addition, overseas absentee ballots will continue to trickle in over the next 7 – 10 days.

To add to the confusion, allegations of voter irregularities have been reported in several counties in Florida. Confused balloting and missing ballot boxes have added to the anxiety surrounding the vote count.

Already three voters have filed a lawsuit contending the voter ballot was so confusing it led to them voting for Buchanan instead of Gore.

A further 19,000 ballots are alleged to have been disqualified when voters accidentally punched twice when attempting to vote for their presidential candidate of choice.

With all 67 Florida counties reporting, Bush is clinging to a slim 327 vote lead over Gore. Absentee ballots from overseas are still be counting so official election results are still not in.

The two maps below show absolute change (i.e. November 7 night county votes – recount county votes) for each candidate. Green areas indicate counties where the candidate lost votes and orange areas where the candidate gained votes. Election night and recount data was taken from AP reporting.

The Results of the 2000 Florida Ballot Recount

How the vote recount has changed votes for presidential candidate Al Gore.

How the vote recount has changed votes for presidential candidate George W. Bush.

Table showing the votes by Florida count for George Bush and Al Gore.

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