United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 2000
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| County Results
Gore—50-60%
Gore—<50%
Bush—<50%
Bush—50-60% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elections in New Hampshire |
|---|
 |
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
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[1] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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
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[2] 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:[3]
- Stephen Duprey
- Wayne MacDonald
- Augusta Petrone
- Irusha Peiris
