The Presidential election remains undecided as the sun rises this morning, hours after the last polls officially closed. Although most major news organizations declared Governor Bush the winner shortly after 2 a.m., all calls were retracted just after 4 a.m., when it was learned that the thousand-vote margin would necessitate a recount in the pivotal state of Florida. Upon learning of the recount, which will take place at 9 a.m. today, Vice President Gore retracted his concession to Gov. Bush and announced that he will continue his campaign.
The election comes right down to the wire, with both Gore and Bush pulling 49 percent of the popular vote. The contest is hanging in the balance, as the nation waits for official totals in Florida, whose 25 electoral votes will push either candidate over the necessary 270. Bush currently leads in Florida by just 224 votes. Several thousand more absentee ballots will be counted in the next few days.
Media organizations are still unsure of the outcome of votes in four additional states: Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wisconsin. The New York Times went so far as to literally stop its presses, and has retracted its election calls.
Americans came out to vote in droves, with almost 50 percent of registered voters coming to the polls - one of the highest turnouts in decades. Massachusetts, which cast its 12 electoral votes for Gore, ranked among states with the highest turnouts, with preliminary numbers indicating that over 70 percent of registered voters came out to the polls. While analysts have traditionally predicted that a large turnout would favor the Democrats, it seems that the voters came out in support of Gov. Bush as well.
By 11 p.m. last night, the race had come down to a few crucial swing states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin, and Maine. By midnight, Florida had emerged as the key to the race - in order to win, each candidate would have had to either win Florida or a laundry list of smaller swing states.
Many media organizations, including CNN and the Associated Press, had declared a Gore victory in Florida early in the night, but then rescinded the call as Bush took a late lead in the state, where his brother Jeb is governor.
Also contributing to the late-night uncertainty were the states of Washington and Oregon, both of which have unusual voting laws that lengthen the amount of time required to count votes. Washington voters are permitted to mail their ballots in if they are postmarked by 12 midnight on election day, while their Oregonian counterparts submitted ballots into drop boxes all day today.
Top Democrats are criticizing Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, who won a sizable percentage of the popular vote, for monopolizing a crucial chunk of Gore voters, and giving Governor Bush a pivotal lead in such a tight race. Nader, who openly prefers Gore to Bush, has ridiculed the Vice President for having so much difficulty beating the Texas Governor, whom he perceives to be unqualified for the office of president.
The Republicans held onto slim majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Among several notable Democratic victories were First Lady Hillary Clinton beating out competitor Rick Lazio to become a New York Senator, and deceased Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan defeating Republican Challenger John Ashcroft for a Senate seat the dead Governor's wife will now assume.
A crowd of over 150 Tufts students, composed almost entirely of Gore supporters, assembled in Cabot auditorium last night to follow the election and listen to analysis from a number of Tufts professors and political activists.
The panel included Political Science professors James Glaser and Kent Portney, Tufts Nader campaign leader Jesse Alderman, Primary Source columnist Jonathan Perle, and Tufts Democrats Vice President Sarah Molenkamp.
One of the most emotionally charged moments of the night came when the major media networks retracted their original statement that Gore had won Florida, throwing the election back into the fray.
"They shouldn't be calling it that early, that's the bottom line," said Tufts Republican Nick Abraham. "You're playing with people's emotions."
"It can unduly affect people's decisions," Tufts Republicans Co-president Sam Dangremond agreed.
Bush supporter Phillip Berenbroick experienced the same roller-coaster ride through all the miscalls.
"Early in the evening I was a little discouraged," he said . "Now we have Missouri back, Florida is a tossup again... with a lot of states still up for grabs... It's crazy but it's a lot of fun."
Ben Oshlag and Daniel Barbarisi contributed to this article.
