WASHINGTON – The Presidential Election in USA is one of the closest in the nations history, not even a quarter-million votes separating Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore out of 100 million ballots cast nationwide. At 9 a.m. ET, Gore had polled 48,428,560 votes to Bushs 48,225,646 in the popular vote.
The Bush and Gore campaigns were sending SWAT teams to Florida Wednesday to monitor a recount thats likely to decide the nations next president. The recount, triggered by how close the race is in Florida, comes after a wild evening of dramatic reversals about who had won the presidency. Because of the recount as well as absentee ballots in Florida, at least one irregularity and the inevitable appeals Americans may not know for days who their next leader will be.
The figures show that while Gore won the popular vote, whats unclear is wholl win the decisive Electoral College and thats where Floridas 25 electoral votes come in. Gore has 260 of the 270 votes needed, Bush 246. If Bush wins Florida, hell have 271 electoral votes just one more than needed to secure the presidency. Ironically, some pundits had been projecting a reverse scenario: Bush winning the popular vote but losing in the Electoral College to Gore.
Gore won important battleground states from Pennsylvania to California, but Bush piled up smaller victories in the South and the Midwest to leave the count in the Electoral College all but deadlocked until 2:25 a.m. ET, when the major television networks, including NBC News, declared that Floridas 25 electoral votes had put Bush over the top.
For more than an hour and a half, Bushs supporters celebrated in Austin, Texas, while Gores consoled one another in the rain in Nashville, Tenn.
Then, at 4 a.m., the networks retracted their projections that Bush had won, setting off wild celebrations in Tennessee. Shortly beforehand, Gore called Bush in Austin to withdraw the congratulations he had telephoned to the governor earlier.
The White House now hangs on the result of an automatic recount of the votes in Florida, the winner of which will be sworn in as president at noon ET on Jan. 20.
The recount was triggered because only 1,785 of the 6 million votes cast in Florida separated the two men with all precincts reporting by 7:00 a.m. ET.Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat who is also Gores Florida campaign chairman, said Wednesday that he hoped the recount, which will be overseen by Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican, could be completed today or tomorrow.
Lawyers for Gore and Bush, dubbed SWAT teams by political operatives, were being deployed to Florida to observe the recount.
Butterworth earlier added that the recount itself could also be challenged. Then its up to the candidates about whether to do that, he said.
Also at issue were possibly several thousand absentee ballots from overseas that must be counted within 10 days, NBC News Michelle Jaconi and Sheldon Gawiser reported.
And the Florida factor was intensified by voter confusion in Palm Beach County when several dozen voters said they later realized they had voted for the Freedom Partys Pat Buchanan instead of Gore because of the way the circles were lined up on their ballots. Elections officials said the confusion was caused by making type on the countys ballots larger so voters could read them.
The major TV networks, which had made projections based on exit polls compiled by a consortium that includes NBC, had to make two retractions during the vote count overnight.
The nail-biting drama was first amplified when the consortium withdrew their earlier projections that Gore had won Florida at 10:31 p.m. ET.
Bush bitterly criticized those projections, saying absentee ballots and returns from areas of the state in the Central time zone had not been adequately taken into account.
The networks called this thing awful early, but the people counting the votes are coming up with a different perspective, and so were pretty darn upbeat about things, Bush said late Tuesday.
Then, at 2:25 a.m. ET, the major television networks, including NBC News, declared that Floridas 25 electoral votes had put Bush over the top.
That projection lasted until 4 a.m., when it was retracted. Shortly thereafter, Gore campaign chairman William Daley appeared on Americas television screens to echo Bushs sentiments, this time on Gores behalf. Don Evans, his counterpart in Bushs camp, countered that I am confident when it is all said and done we will prevail.
If Bush is elected, it will be the first time since 1952 that Republicans will have control of the House, Senate and the White House.
Americans also elected 11 governors, filled their state legislatures and settled more than 200 ballot issues in 42 states – ranging from legalizing marijuana in Alaska to fluoridating the water in San Antonio, Texas.
