With today's chatter about vote-counting processes, declaring winners on Election Day or not, etc., I want to recount a crazy, revealing story from the 2000 election that most people have forgotten about or never knew . . . because it happened in New Mexico and not Florida.
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New Mexico saw about 600,000 votes cast. On election night, Gore led by about 5,000 and the networks initially declared him the winner.
Late Wednesday, a programming error was discovered that had excluded 67,000 votes from totals in Bernalillo County (the biggest county).
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Late Wednesday, a programming error was discovered that had excluded 67,000 votes from totals in Bernalillo County (the biggest county).
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With those ballots counted (along with other missing ones that turned up on Thursday), Bush took a 4-vote lead. His lead grew a bit as counties settled minor discrepancies and re-canvassed.
But on 11/14, a week after election night, there was another dramatic reversal.
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But on 11/14, a week after election night, there was another dramatic reversal.
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Doña Ana County officials realized that a handwritten tally-sheet entry, first entered as 120 votes for Gore, actually said 620. Some say it was bad handwriting, others a paper clip obscuring the number. Either way the correction flipped the result: Gore won NM by 366 votes.
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The final call for Gore in New Mexico came on 11/17, ten days after election night. He'd won by 0.06%.
Few Americans noticed any of this at the time, though. As the New Mexico drama was playing out, it was already apparent that the whole election would come down to Florida.
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Few Americans noticed any of this at the time, though. As the New Mexico drama was playing out, it was already apparent that the whole election would come down to Florida.
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In other words, there was no reason for Bush to fight hard for New Mexico, because by 11/17 its 5 electoral votes clearly were not going to be decisive.
Had it been otherwise, who knows what further drama might have gone on as the parties fought over the razor-thin margin?
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Had it been otherwise, who knows what further drama might have gone on as the parties fought over the razor-thin margin?
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The morals:
* Finalizing vote counts takes many days.
* Typically we don't notice, b/c results usually don't turn on the tiny changes that later stages of counting yield.
* There are *always* small errors—finding and correcting them takes time, patience, and good faith.
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* Finalizing vote counts takes many days.
* Typically we don't notice, b/c results usually don't turn on the tiny changes that later stages of counting yield.
* There are *always* small errors—finding and correcting them takes time, patience, and good faith.
7/7
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