The Revolution will not be Televised

[Emperor Charles V]

Hi, I'm Tom Brokaw and with me is Tim Russert. Welcome to NBC's coverage of the
2000 Presidential Election!



Vice-President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee and Texas Governor George W. Bush, the Republican nominee are battling it out to succeed Clinton in the White House. Polls show the two to be in a dead heat and as far as we know it's anyone's game. The only thing we can tell you for sure is that it will be a long night tonight.

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It's now 7:00 PM EST and the polls are about to close in seven states: Vermont, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and of course the important battleground state of Florida!

Polls are closing in 3.....2.....1.....!

[Emperor Charles V]

It's 7:00 PM EST and with the polls closing in a bunch of states we can make a few projections.

In Vermont we can project that Vice-President Gore will win it's three electoral votes. A former Republican stronghold, Vermont is now re-establishing itself as a reliably Democratic state.

Indiana as expected we can call for Governor Bush. This is the home state of former Vice-President Quayle who extensively campaigned for the governor, the son of the president he served under.

And Kentucky we can call for Bush as well. No surprise there but it's notable that President Clinton carried this state twice. However it comfortably falls into the Republican column tonight.

In Virginia it is too early for us to make a projection though Governor Bush is leading there.

South Carolina comfortably breaks for the Texas Governor. No surprise out of the Palmetto State.

And Georgia we can also call for Bush. We are seeing the reverse situation of Vermont here as a former Democratic stronghold has turned itself into a fairly safe seat for the GOP.

And finally we come to Florida, a state everybody is watching closely this race which as expected is too close to call though Gore maintains a slight lead.

With these states in, here is the electoral map as it currently stands.

Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 41 EV
Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 3 EV

Governor Bush currently has forty-one electoral votes, Vice-President Gore has three! It's still anybody's game! More poll closings are coming in half an hour, stay tuned!

[Emperor Charles V]

It's now 7:30 PM EST and the polls have closed in three more states.

In Ohio the race is too close to call. This is a crucial battleground state which the Bush campaign deems necessary for the governor to win the White House. Never in history has a Republican candidate won a presidential election without carrying the Buckeye State.

West Virginia is also a state where it is too early for us to make a call but as of now, Governor Bush has a lead over Vice-President Gore.

North Carolina however we can call for Bush as he seems to be dominating the south tonight.

And that brings us to...

Wait a second we have another projection. A big one.



Gore's lead in Florida has widened to the point it is now safe for us to call the Sunshine State for him.

This is a huge victory for the Vice-President as it gives him 25 big electoral votes. Bush had hoped that he would carry Florida especially with his brother being the governor, but this will not be the case as the state falls into the Democratic column for the second time in a row tonight.

This turns the attention for the Bush campaign to Ohio, a state he must win to remain a viable contender in the race. Since he failed to deliver in Florida, the governor will also have to carry either Pennsylvania or Michigan to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to go to the White House. If Bush fails to carry Ohio and either Pennsylvania or Michigan, it will be unlikely, but not impossible for him to win the presidency.

Now with Florida projected for Gore, here is the electoral map.

Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 55 EV
Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 28 EV

Governor Bush is in the lead with 55 electoral votes with Vice-President Gore at 28, though Florida gives the Vice-President a huge advantage going into the night!

Stay tuned for 8:00 where polls will close in a lot more states!

[Emperor Charles V]

It's now 8:00 PM EST and with the polls closing in over a dozen states and the District of Columbia, we can make some more projections.

Vice-President Gore will win the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois and Washington D.C.

Governor Bush will win Alabama, Mississippi, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

No surprises there.

We can also call the state of Virginia for Governor Bush, moving it from the too close to call category.

Joining Ohio and West Virginia in the states where polls have closed but we have yet to make a call are the following states: Maine, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Tennessee and Missouri. All these states but in particular Pennsylvania and Michigan are crucial battlegrounds both candidates have poured much money and resources into.

Here is the map as it stands following the eight o'clock poll closings.

Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 130 EV
Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 101 EV


Governor Bush maintains a slight lead of just under thirty electoral votes over the Vice-President but with more than half of the country left to call including the important swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, the night has just begun.

Stay tuned for more projections and poll closings!

[Noravea]

This is an excellent timeline so far. I look forward to seeing who will win.

And yay! Fellow New Yorker!

[Emperor Charles V]

This is an excellent timeline so far. I look forward to seeing who will win.

And yay! Fellow New Yorker!

Thanks! And the TL will continue after the election as well!

And I have a feeling we met before.

[Free Bird]

It's weird seeing the "official" colors on Atlas

[New_Conservative]

Great timeline, very interesting. Looking forward to the rest of your posts

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

It's weird seeing the "official" colors on Atlas

No, those are the unofficial colors. Atlas's colors are more in line with the world.

[Enderman]

I love it that there has only been East Coast posters that posted in this thread as of now.

Anyways what's with Florida being called at 8PM EST?

[Emperor Charles V]

Anyways what's with Florida being called at 8PM EST?

Good question. Believe it or not IRL, IIRC it was actually called by major news networks at 7:30...for Gore. They made the mistake of giving it to Gore before the polls in the solidly Republican western panhandle closed (one hour after the rest of the state).

[Emperor Charles V]

It's now 8:30 PM EST and polls have just closed in Arkansas. We can tell you that this state is too close to call as of now. Arkansas is the Home State of President Clinton and he is vey popular there having won the state twice by comfortable margins and has stumped for the Vice-President there. However, it has been trending to the right in recent years shown with the election of its popular Republican governor Mike Huckabee who has stumped for Bush.

While the fate of Arkansas remains uncertain for the time being, we are now able to project several states that are in the too close to call column...

We have a few big ones here!

The states of Maine, Pennsylvania and Michigan will all go for Vice-President Gore.

The latter two states especially are huge victories for him as they have been battlegrounds throughout the entire campaign. Now that Gore has won Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan, the path for Governor Bush to reach 270 is looking more and more narrower.

Bush now must win Ohio to stay viable, and without the three large battleground states he will have to sweep the Midwest and west meaning winning in states such as Iowa and Wisconsin, and Oregon and New Mexico. Picking Cheney, a westerner as his running-mate might pay off here but keep in mind the western states save California which is certain to go for Gore, are smaller, more sparsely populated and have less electoral votes.

With these major states added to Gore's growing column, here's the map as it stands now.

Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 146 EV
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 130 EV

For the first time in the night, the Vice-President is leading with 146 Electoral Votes to Governor Bush's 130. More polls will close at 9!

Who will make it to 270 first and win the White House? Stay tuned to find out!

[Emperor Charles V]

It's weird seeing the "official" colors on Atlas

No, those are the unofficial colors. Atlas's colors are more in line with the world.

I chose to use the "wrong/right" colors whatever you want to call them, because I'm trying to mimic NBC news and those were the colors they used in 2000.

Great timeline, very interesting. Looking forward to the rest of your posts

Thanks!

[Person Man]

It's weird seeing the "official" colors on Atlas

No, those are the unofficial colors. Atlas's colors are more in line with the world.

I chose to use the "wrong/right" colors whatever you want to call them, because I'm trying to mimic NBC news and those were the colors they used in 2000.

Great timeline, very interesting. Looking forward to the rest of your posts

Thanks!

I think whomever won a majority of the south last election automatically gets red.

[Emperor Charles V]

It's weird seeing the "official" colors on Atlas

No, those are the unofficial colors. Atlas's colors are more in line with the world.

I chose to use the "wrong/right" colors whatever you want to call them, because I'm trying to mimic NBC news and those were the colors they used in 2000.

Great timeline, very interesting. Looking forward to the rest of your posts

Thanks!

I think whomever won a majority of the south last election automatically gets red.

The last time a Democrat won the majority of the "south" (meaning the 11 former Confederate states) was 1976 when Carter won every state except Virginia. Clinton came close winning four "southern" states each time he ran. He won five states each time if you want to include Kentucky as the "south" as well.

In 1980 however, most news networks used red for the GOP (I guess they figured "red for Reagan"). 1976 IIRC, the year the interactive map was introduced, was the only year the Atlas colors were used.

[Emperor Charles V]

It's 8:45 PM and we have a very important announcement to make.

Earlier we called the state of Florida for Vice-President Gore. However with more votes from heavily Republican areas in the northwestern part of the state, Gore's lead has shrunk to the point where we are moving the state back into the Too Close to Call column.

This is a huge relief to the Bush campaign as a victory in Florida would pave a much easier path to the White House for the Texas Governor.

With Florida removed from Gore's victory list, the map now looks like this:

Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 130 EV
Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 121 EV

With Florida taken out of the equation, Bush is now back in the lead. Polls are about to close in fifteen minutes! Stay tuned!

[Emperor Charles V]

500 views! Thanks everybody!

More to come!

So who do you think will win? Bush and Gore? And why?

[Bigby]

Not sure. Hopefully you depart from OTL soon.

[Emperor Charles V]

It's now 9:00 PM and with the polls closing in many states we can make the following projections.

For Gore we can project:

New York
Rhode Island

And for Bush:

South Dakota
Nebraska
Wyoming

Nothing unexpected there.

Many states where polls have just closed are too close to call adding to the uncertainty of the direction of this election.

These states are:

Louisiana
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Colorado
New Mexico
Arizona

And now we have another projection. We can project that the Vice-President has won the state of New Hampshire. Not a huge victory for him as it only adds four electoral votes to his total but it was a state the Bush campaign was almost certain they had in the bag.

The new map:

Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 162 EV
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 141 EV

Gore has come back into the lead and with his victory in New Hampshire, this election is the third time in a row a Democrat has swept the northeast, a feat accomplished by President Clinton in both '92 and '96. Once a beacon of the GOP is now becoming a reliable Democratic region. The reverse can be said for the south where Gore has yet to win a state tonight.

More polls close in one hour including the swing states of Iowa and Nevada. Polls on the west coast including those in Oregon, the state that might decide this election, close in two hours! Stay tuned! This is getting intense!

[Emperor Charles V]

It's 9:30 PM EST and we can now call two more states.

For Gore we can call Minnesota. This is not particularly surprising as although technically a swing state, it votes reliably Democratic in presidential elections, last voting for a Republican in Nixon's landslide victory of 1972. It was the only state won by Walter Mondale in 1984, although it happened to be his home state.  The Bush despite all odds have made a effort to flip the state to the GOP tonight. It didn't work as the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes falls into the Democratic column for the seventh consecutive time.

For Bush we can call West Virginia. This is a state every pundit expected he would win tonight. However no one expected it would take this long to call which is very worrisome for the Bush campaign.

And wait...we have another projection to make. What can it be this time?

It's Florida. AGAIN.

For the second time tonight, we can project that the Vice-President will be victorious in the Sunshine State. For those of you just tuning in we called Florida earlier for Gore only to briefly rescind the call as  his lead over Bush in the state was shrinking. However, Gore has maintained his old lead and Florida will fall for a second time into his column, hopefully this time for good.

Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 197 EV
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 146 EV

Vice-President Gore has increased his lead over Governor Bush and now is only 73 electoral votes away from the 270 needed to win the White House. Since California and Hawaii will give him an almost certain 58 electoral votes, he will only need 15 more votes from swing states.

Bush is in trouble. Unlike Gore, in order to win the presidency, he must win almost every battleground state and will have to perform well in the Midwest, west and southwest and exceed expectations in the south. And if Bush fails to win Ohio, it is over for him as it's 21 Electoral Votes will put Gore over the 15 more he needs to win.

Can Bush pull off an upset? Stay tuned to find out!

[Bigby]

Bush is in trouble.

[Emperor Charles V]

Bush is in trouble.

He needs to win all the remaining states he won IOTL (including Ohio) and then needs 28 Electoral Votes on top of that. Oregon, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico will do that he lost all these states by less than a percent IOTL. Or maybe, Florida can be brought back into the tossup column again. It is Florida.

So a Bush win ITTL is not impossible, but he definitely has a tougher time than IOTL.

[Emperor Charles V]

I want to move things along so the next update will takes us to 11:00.

[Emperor Charles V]

Throughout the next hour and a half, the polls closed in all remaining states save Alaska. However, no swing states were called.

10:00 PM EST

With the polls closing in even more states, we can now project...

Bush wins:

North Dakota
Montana
Idaho
Utah

Too Close to Call:

Iowa
Nevada

11:00 PM EST

The polls have now closed on the west coast. We can project...

Gore wins:

California
Hawaii

Too Close to Call:

Oregon
Washington

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As of 11:00 PM EST, here is the map...

Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 255 EV
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 161 EV

Gore holds a clear advantage coming into the final stretch of the election. But can Bush beat all odds and succeed Clinton to become the nation's next president? As always, stay tuned!

[Emperor Charles V]

It's 11:23 PM EST and the moment we have been waiting for has finally arrived! We can now call the state of Ohio and with that that election for Vice-President Al Gore!

With Ohio's 21 electoral votes now added to the Vice-President's column, he now exceeds the 270 necessary to win the White House and will be the nation's 43rd president. Gore's victory over Governor Bush marks the third time the Democratic victory in a presidential election in a row.

GORE WINS!



The map after Vice-President Gore was projected the winner of the election of 2000...

Vice-President Al Gore (D-TN) / U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) - 276 EV
Governor George W. Bush (R-TX) / fmr. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney (R-WY) - 161 EV