As it turned out the popular vote was essentially tied with Gore being ahead by a hair's breath. And the Electoral College was as close to tied as it could be, and W won by a hair's breath in Florida.
The lesson though was that a report before voting had finished in the Florida panhandle that projected Gore the winner of Florida, deflated voting for W both in the Florida Pan Handle and in the Western states later that evening.
That report turned out wrong....but according to a book I read about it afterward that did some analysis, if that false report had not happened W Bush would have won the popular vote and won Florida by enough that recounts would not come in to play....the whole controversy about hanging chads and the Supreme Court deciding elections could have been diverted.
Moral of the story: Do not give a damn about any reports before or after election night...get out and vote!
“Moral of the story: Do not give a damn about any reports before or after election night...get out and vote!”
*Vote Early, Vote Often*
*BUMP*
No, the reality is that the delay in reporting for the pro-Bush districts caused the vote-fraud people in the pro-Gore districts to under-estimate how many votes they had to create to push Gore over the top.
Gore’s book about FLA attributed the legal acuity of Bush atty, James Baker...that every time Gore’s legal team made a move, Baker had already got there. Baker was always two steps ahead of Gore.
Also significant......Baker got the USSC to stop the count....apparently the USSC saw through the perennial Dem practice of counting and recounting the votes until they won.
Dems had also brought into FLA the infamous Chicago Daley Vote Mfg Co.