2000 Electoral Map

2000 Election Results

George W. Bush defeated Vice President Al Gore, winning 271 electoral votes to 266 despite losing the national popular vote by more than 500,000 votes. One Democratic elector from the District of Columbia abstained.

Florida decided the presidency. Bush’s certified lead was just 537 votes, and its 25 electoral votes put him over the top. Weeks of recounts and litigation ended after the Supreme Court’s December 12 decision in Bush v. Gore halted the recount ordered by Florida’s highest court. The certified result stood, and Gore conceded.

The broader map showed how much of Clinton’s coalition had disappeared. Bush flipped Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee — Gore’s home state — along with Ohio, Missouri, West Virginia, Nevada, Arizona, New Hampshire and Florida. Gore held the Pacific Coast and much of the Northeast and Upper Midwest, but lost every former Confederate state.

Gore’s losses left him dependent on Florida, though winning New Hampshire or Tennessee would also have been enough. Bush’s promise of a different tone in Washington helped him compete against an administration presiding over a strong economy. The result exposed the gap between winning the most votes nationally and assembling an Electoral College majority — and revealed a sharper regional divide than Clinton had faced.