1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this date in 2000, the presidential election between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George Bush resulted in a statistical tie. The results in Florida, Oregon and Wisconsin were unclear and/or too close to call by the end of election night and resulted in a recount and a Supreme Court case, Bush v. Gore, which ended the dispute in favor of Bush a month later. The election exposed several flaws and controversial elements of the American electoral process, and was the fourth of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote. In the national popular vote, then-Vice President Gore received 48.4% while Bush, the governor of Texas and son of former President George H. W. Bush, received 47.9%, losing by over 540,000 votes. However, US presidential elections use the Electoral College, which assigns “electoral votes” to states based on their population and then awards them as a lump sum to the winner of the popular vote in that state. Currently, it takes 270 electoral votes to win and by the end of Election Night, 2000, Gore’s tally stood at 250 while Bush’s was 246. The ensuing saga involved multiple legal battles, recounts and debates about the voting methods used. On Dec. 12, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the Florida recount and Gore conceded to Bush.
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