Could we see a repeat of the 2000 Presidential Election?
Those questions are out there, in terms of how long the process was in determining the winner.
In what was one of the closest elections in American history, Republican George W. Bush was declared the winner over Democratic candidate Al Gore, despite Gore winning the popular vote.
“The level of controversy, the litigation of 2000 was, in many ways, pretty new and unprecedented,” says Andrew Karch, a professor of political science with the University of Minnesota. “Florida was lynch pin, it was extraordinarily close. There were controversies about ballots coming in and the counting process and so it wound up being resolved in the courts and that was unusual.”
The month long series of legal battles led to the 5 to 4 Supreme Court decision, ending the recount in Florida and leading Bush to win by 537 votes in the Sunshine state.
In the electoral college vote, Bush had 271 while Gore picked up 266.
“I think prior to [2000] probably the most famous election campaign was in 1948 were [Democratic incumbent] Harry S. Truman famously held up the newspaper that read ‘Dewey defeats Truman’ but it turned out, in a close vote, that Truman had actually won re-election [over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey],” Karch notes.
Five times in United States history a presidential candidate has won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College:
1824
Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams
(both candidates of the Democratic-Republican Party)
Popular Vote
Jackson 152,901
Adams 114,023
Electoral College
Jackson 99
Adams 84
1876
Samuel J. Tinden (Democrat) and Rutherford B Hayes (Republican)
Popular Vote
Tinden 4,288,546
Hayes 4,034,311
Electoral College
Tinden 184
Hayes 165
NOTE: 20 unresolved votes were awarded to Hayes through an informal deal (The Compromise of 1877)
1888
Grover Cleveland (Democrat) and Benjamin Harrison (Republican)
Popular Vote
Cleveland defeated Harrison by 90,596 votes
Electoral College
Cleveland 168
Harrison 233
2016
Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and Donald Trump (Republican)
Popular Vote
Trump 62,984,828
Clinton 65,853,514
Electoral College
Trump 304
Clinton 227
