United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 2000

Main article: United States presidential election, 2000

United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 2000

November 7, 2000

Nominee George W. Bush Al Gore Party Republican Democratic Home state Texas Tennessee Running mate Dick Cheney Joe Lieberman Electoral vote 4 0 Popular vote 273,559 266,348 Percentage 48.07% 46.80%

County Results   Gore—50-60%   Gore—<50%   Bush—<50%   Bush—50-60%

President before election Bill Clinton Democratic Elected President George W. Bush Republican

The 2000 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on November 7, 2000 throughout all 50 states and D.C., which was part of the 2000 United States presidential election. Voters chose 4 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

New Hampshire was a crucial swing state, in which Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush was able to pull a major upset over Democratic Vice President Al Gore, receiving 48% of the vote to Gore's 47%, while Ralph Nader received almost 4% of the vote in the state. Bush also won New Hampshire's 1st congressional district. Had Gore won in New Hampshire, he would have therefore won the presidency.

As of 2015, this is the last time that a Republican presidential candidate won any state in the New England region. New Hampshire would later go on to vote for Democrat John Kerry in 2004 by a narrow margin, and Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 by larger margins.

Primaries

• New Hampshire Democratic primary, 2000
• New Hampshire Republican primary, 2000

Analysis

New Hampshire was by 2000 considered to be a swing state in otherwise solidly liberal New England. While it had been a Republican stronghold for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the 1980s, Democrat Bill Clinton managed to win the state two elections in a row in the 1990s, and the state was a toss-up in 2000. Bush narrowly eked out a win, with a plurality of 48% of the vote over Gore's 47%. A major contributing factor to Bush's victory is that 5% of the state voted for a third party candidate, mostly for left-leaning Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, who took votes away from Gore. (Interestingly, there has been much focus on the Nader vote in Florida as the determining factor in swinging the election to Bush, but a much smaller number of Nader voters in New Hampshire made a difference in the state's electoral vote going to Bush. If less than half of the approximately 22,000 Nader votes in New Hampshire had been cast for Gore, he would have received the state's electoral votes and been elected president.) Bush won 6 of the 10 counties, including winning Belknap County with over 55% and winning every town. Bush also won in New Hampshire's 1st congressional district.

Results

United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 2000
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George Bush	Dick Cheney	273,559	48.07%	4
	Democratic	Al Gore	Joe Lieberman	266,348	46.80%	0
	Green	Ralph Nader	Winona LaDuke	22,198	3.70%	0
	Libertarian	Harry Browne	Art Olivier	2,757	0.48%	0
	Reform	Pat Buchanan	Ezola Foster	2,615	0.46%	0
	Others	-	-	1,604	0.29%	0
Totals				-	100.00%	4
Voter turnout (Voting age/Registered)						61%/67%

Results breakdown

By county

County	Bush	Votes	Gore	Votes	Others	Votes
Belknap County	55.2%	14,799	40.0%	10,719	4.7%	1,277
Carroll County	52.8%	12,597	41.3%	9,852	5.9%	1,430
Cheshire County	41.3%	13,793	52.1%	17,382	6.6%	2,220
Coos County	50.2%	7,329	45.0%	6,570	4.8%	701
Grafton County	46.7%	18,092	47.3%	18,326	6.0%	2,315
Hillsborough County	48.7%	80,649	46.8%	77,625	4.5%	7,487
Merrimack County	47.2%	30,028	48.1%	30,622	4.8%	3,034
Rockingham County	49.1%	65,860	45.9%	61,628	5.0%	6,685
Strafford County	42.7%	21,108	51.4%	25,400	5.8%	2,885
Sullivan County	49.8%	9,304	44.1%	8,224	6.1%	1,140

Electors

Main article: List of United States presidential electors, 2000

Technically the voters of NH cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. NH is allocated 4 electors because it has 2 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 4 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 4 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 18, 2000 to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All were pledged to and voted for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney:

1. Stephen Duprey
2. Wayne MacDonald
3. Augusta Petrone
4. Irusha Peiris