November 7, 2000

2000 United States presidential election

The 2000 U.S. presidential election ends without an election-night winner

The number now synonymous with this election — 537 votes — was not known on election night. What was known kept changing, four times on NBC alone.

Called for Gore, called for Bush, called off

Americans voted for presidential electors on 7 November 2000 in a contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Neither could be identified as the winner, because Florida and its decisive 25 electoral votes remained unresolved.

Television networks projected Florida for Gore, withdrew that projection, projected Florida and the presidency for Bush after midnight, then withdrew that call too. NBC's documented times were 7:49 p.m., 10:16 p.m., 2:17 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. Eastern.

Tom Brokaw's summary was that the network had an omelet all over its suits; the projections were news judgments, not official declarations of a president-elect.

A concession made and taken back

After the networks projected Bush the winner, Gore telephoned him to concede. As Bush's reported Florida lead collapsed, Gore called again and withdrew the concession before delivering any public speech.

He was on his way to give that speech when an aide learned the Florida gap had fallen from tens of thousands of votes to fewer than 1,000.

By early on 8 November the networks had pulled their Bush projection, Gore had pulled his private concession, and the country had no president-elect.

Where 537 actually comes from

On 8 November the Florida Division of Elections reported Bush ahead by 1,784 votes. That was under the state's one-half-of-one-percent threshold, so Florida began an automatic machine recount; Gore requested manual recounts in four counties on 9 November.

The famous 537-vote margin — 2,912,790 to 2,912,253 — belongs to Florida's certification on 26 November, not to election night.

Bush v. Gore followed on 12 December, more than a month after the vote, and reversed the 8 December state-court recount order rather than conducting or certifying any recount. The final Electoral College result was Bush 271, Gore 266, with 270 required.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date is firmly Election Day, November 7, but the decisive projection reversals, Gore's two calls and the formal recount trigger occurred after midnight on November 8 Eastern time.
Election-night figures were unofficial and changed rapidly. The famous 537-vote figure is the final certified margin, not the margin known on election night.