Environmental candidate Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the election, and put George W. Bush (not noted for environmental concern) into the White House.
Nader got 2.5 per cent of the total vote. By late yesterday evening he had 2.27 million of the 85 million counted.
But the election is decided on the total, but Electoral College votes under which each state gets a number of votes equal to its representation in the Congress. The candidate with the most votes in any state takes all the electoral college votes of that state. There is no preferential or proportional counting. The Electoral College has 538 members and a candidate therefore needs 270 to win.
The election came down to the wire. Last night the four knife edge states were Florida (25 votes), Oregon (7) and Wisconsin (11). It meant whoever took Florida won the election.
At the count last night, Bush took Florida by the narrowest of margins because of the Nader vote.
The vote in Florida last night was Bush 2,817,912 (49.5 per cent) Gore 2,762,911 (48.5 per cent) and Nader 93,742 (1.6 per cent).
Voters who supported Nader were typical Democrat voters. If Nader had not stood, Gore could have been expected to pick up the lion’s share of Nader’s 93,742.
It would have given him Florida and the presidency.
Florida aside, Nader’s vote was also a spoiler for Gore in New Hampshire (4), Oregon (7) and Wisconsin (11) for a total of 22 Electoral College votes, once again enough to determine the presidency. In each of these states if Nader had not run and the vote split 70-30 (as would be expected), Gore would have taken all of these states.
Bush was leading Gore by 600,000 votes late yesterday evening. If Nader had not stood, it is likely Gore would have just been ahead.
Right-wing candidate Pat Buchanan’s 400,000 was hardly a blip on the landscape and did not hinder Bush in any state.