# Gore has Florida and Pennsylvania!!!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 8, 2000, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225 "2000-11-08T01:50:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/1 "2000-11-08T01:50:56Z")

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Yes yes yes!!!  
Two VERY important states, especially when you consider that Jeb BUSH is gov of Florida.  
EAt shit, Gov. Ridge! (God, do I HATE our governor!)

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**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/2 "2000-11-08T01:53:55Z")

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Can someone explain this to me? I am looking at MSNCB web site. It says that Bush has 50% of the vote in FL and Gore has 47%. They are also saying that the absentee ballots aren’t counted yet and Bush should win those.

But they are still giving FL to Gore.

Why?

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**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/3 "2000-11-08T01:55:06Z")

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Of course I meant MSNBC. Here is the link. The percentages may change. They have been up dating it.

> **[MSNBC News - Breaking News and News Today | Latest News](https://www.msnbc.com/)**
>
> MSNBC breaking news and the latest news for today. Get daily news from local news reporters and world news updates with live audio & video from our team.

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**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/4 "2000-11-08T01:55:10Z")

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I cant confirm that call either… I checked several sites including cbs and msn.

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**Author:** ![Mamapotomus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@Mamapotomus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mamapotomus)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/5 "2000-11-08T01:57:02Z")

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Not as much as I hate my governor- please please please let him lose… The good news is Nader is at 2% here in Texas.

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**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/6 "2000-11-08T01:58:09Z")

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They’re now projecting Michigan as another Gore win.

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**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/7 "2000-11-08T02:02:12Z")

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yes, Gore’s the projected winner in MI (I believe one BIG factor was our guv “promised” the state to Bush a long time ago, pissed us off).

the reason you would see numbers like “Bush 52% Gore 48%” and Gore projected as the winner, is that they do projections considering WHERE the votes are coming in.

For example, the west side of my state is heavily republican, so, if Bush won on the west side with only a slight advantage, the city of Detroit would more than make up the difference…

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**Author:** ![Le\_Sang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ee7513/32.png) [@Le\_Sang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Sang)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/8 "2000-11-08T02:02:54Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Lost, Oh Lost…

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**Author:** ![Strider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Strider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strider)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/9 "2000-11-08T02:13:57Z")

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Bush: 153  
Gore: 182

18:11:56 Pacific Standard Time.

-N

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/10 "2000-11-08T02:14:33Z")

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Zumba, if you go to the exit polls, you can see why MSNBC (and others) are giving Florida to Gore. Their polls show Gore leading Bush in the popular vote about 50.5% to 46.6%. Other news services numbers have been similar.

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**Author:** ![Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/779978/32.png) [@Zumba\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zumba_The_Cat)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/11 "2000-11-08T02:16:30Z")

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But doesn’t that mean that Bush still has a shot at FL?

The site says he (Bush) has 52% of FL now.

They keep saying Gore has FL as if it is a definate and I haven’t heard why they say why/

I know that probably no one knows. But, why don’t they adjust the percentages to reflect what they call?

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/12 "2000-11-08T02:42:44Z")

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Bush has a chance, sure, but not a large one. They probably polled close to a thousand people. That gives a margin of error of about 4%. That means that there’s about a 95% chance that the actual returns will be within 4% of the percentages their poll showed. That means that, assuming their poll was unbiased, that there’s about a 3% chance that Bush will win the popular vote in Florida. Add in the fact that other polls have shown similar numbers, and that reduces his chance even more.

Take the above numbers with a grain of salt. I may have gotten some of them wrong. But the gist is that, the chances of Bush winning are low enough that MSNBC is willing to stake its reputation (cough, cough) that Gore will win it. Plus, if they’re wrong, they can change the web page in a flash.

As for adjusting the other numbers they show, those numbers are official returns, as counted by election officials. They’re just reporting the numbers as they get them.

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**Author:** ![Belle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a698b9/32.png) [@Belle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belle)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/13 "2000-11-08T03:14:01Z")

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I’m watching the coverage on NBC and it looks like they are going to be changing their stand on Florida. The Bush ‘camp’ is strongly denying that Gore has taken Florida. It’s really pretty close right now (10:16 est)

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**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/14 "2000-11-08T03:14:05Z")

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All the networks are now saying FL is still up for grabs. Apparently the Bush camp contested the projection.

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**Author:** ![AETBOND417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@AETBOND417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AETBOND417)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gore-has-florida-and-pennsylvania/40225/15 "2000-11-08T03:18:09Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \*  
> \*\*All the networks are now saying FL is still up for grabs. Apparently the Bush camp contested the projection.  
> \*\*

Exactly. They’re basing their opinion on Bush being slightly favored by Hispanics, and the notion that Republicans had \>100,000 absentee ballots going for Bush.
