2000 United States presidential election in Colorado

The 2000 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 7, 2000, and was part of the 2000 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

2000 United States presidential election in Colorado

November 7, 2000

Nominee George W. Bush Al Gore Ralph Nader Party Republican Democratic Green Home state Texas Tennessee Connecticut Running mate Dick Cheney Joe Lieberman Winona LaDuke Electoral vote 8 0 0 Popular vote 883,745 738,227 91,434 Percentage 50.75% 42.39% 5.25%

County Results Bush   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Gore   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%

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

Colorado was won by Governor George W. Bush by an 8.36% margin of victory, although almost 7% of the electorate voted for third-party candidates. Bush won a majority of the counties and congressional districts. Nader's best performance in the state and indeed the nation was in San Miguel County where he received over 17.20% of the vote,[1] a performance that remains the Green Party's second best performance in any county nationwide as of the 2020 presidential election (after 2016 when Jill Stein carried 25% of the vote in Kalawao County, Hawaii, placing second[2]). As of 2020, this is the last election in which San Juan County, Gunnison County, Clear Creek County, Routt County, Eagle County, and La Plata County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[3]

Results

2000 United States presidential election in Colorado[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George W. Bush	883,745	50.75%	8
	Democratic	Al Gore	738,227	42.39%	0
	Green	Ralph Nader	91,434	5.25%	0
	Libertarian	Harry Browne	12,799	0.73%	0
	American	Patrick Buchanan	10,465	0.60%	0
	Natural Law	John Hagelin	2,240	0.13%	0
	Constitution	Howard Phillips	1,319	0.08%	0
	Socialist	David McReynolds	712	0.04%	0
	Socialist Workers	James Harris	216	0.01%	0
	Prohibition	Earl Dodge	208	0.01%	0
Totals			1,741,365	100.00%	8
Voter turnout (Voting age)					54%

Results by county

County[5]	George Walker Bush Republican		Albert Arnold Gore Jr. Democratic		Ralph Nader Green		Various candidates Other parties		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Cheyenne	78.96%	957	17.24%	209	1.82%	22	1.98%	24	61.72%	748
Rio Blanco	76.53%	2,185	19.02%	543	2.98%	85	1.47%	42	57.51%	1,642
Washington	76.81%	1,878	19.51%	477	2.04%	50	1.63%	40	57.30%	1,401
Jackson	73.73%	682	18.70%	173	4.32%	40	3.23%	30	55.03%	509
Kiowa	75.21%	728	21.80%	211	1.34%	13	1.66%	16	53.41%	517
Lincoln	74.12%	1,630	23.19%	510	1.23%	27	1.45%	32	50.93%	1,120
Kit Carson	73.51%	2,542	23.40%	809	1.68%	58	1.42%	49	50.11%	1,733
Baca	73.00%	1,663	23.31%	531	2.06%	47	1.62%	37	49.69%	1,132
Moffat	71.95%	3,840	22.92%	1,223	3.17%	169	1.97%	105	49.03%	2,617
Yuma	72.42%	3,156	24.83%	1,082	1.38%	60	1.38%	60	47.59%	2,074
Phillips	70.86%	1,573	25.41%	564	2.16%	48	1.59%	35	45.45%	1,009
Custer	68.74%	1,451	24.02%	507	4.74%	100	2.51%	53	44.72%	944
Elbert	68.61%	6,151	25.95%	2,326	3.26%	292	2.19%	196	42.66%	3,825
Delta	65.99%	8,372	25.73%	3,264	6.72%	852	1.56%	198	40.26%	5,108
Logan	68.32%	5,531	28.36%	2,296	1.73%	140	1.60%	129	39.96%	3,235
Dolores	65.34%	741	25.84%	293	6.44%	73	2.38%	27	39.50%	448
Montezuma	65.62%	6,158	27.24%	2,556	5.65%	530	1.50%	140	38.38%	3,602
Teller	65.78%	6,477	27.93%	2,750	4.36%	429	1.93%	191	37.85%	3,727
Sedgwick	67.31%	877	29.47%	384	1.92%	25	1.30%	17	37.84%	493
Prowers	66.89%	3,026	30.08%	1,361	1.75%	79	1.28%	58	36.81%	1,665
Montrose	65.18%	9,266	28.43%	4,041	4.61%	656	1.78%	252	36.75%	5,225
Douglas	64.95%	56,007	31.40%	27,076	2.59%	2,230	1.06%	912	33.55%	28,931
Mesa	63.45%	32,396	30.29%	15,465	4.38%	2,235	1.88%	958	33.16%	16,931
El Paso	63.91%	128,294	30.78%	61,799	3.54%	7,116	1.76%	3,548	33.13%	66,495
Archuleta	62.80%	2,988	30.10%	1,432	5.57%	265	1.54%	73	32.70%	1,556
Morgan	63.59%	5,722	32.06%	2,885	2.34%	211	1.99%	180	31.53%	2,837
Fremont	61.75%	9,914	32.97%	5,293	3.21%	516	2.07%	333	28.78%	4,621
Rio Grande	61.30%	3,111	33.64%	1,707	3.53%	179	1.53%	78	27.66%	1,404
Mineral	60.49%	294	34.57%	168	3.91%	19	1.03%	5	25.92%	126
Ouray	57.28%	1,279	31.57%	705	10.03%	224	1.12%	25	25.71%	574
Crowley	59.17%	855	35.36%	511	1.94%	28	3.54%	51	23.81%	344
Hinsdale	55.83%	316	33.22%	188	9.01%	51	1.94%	11	22.61%	128
Weld	57.96%	37,409	36.31%	23,436	3.78%	2,438	1.94%	1,258	21.65%	13,973
Chaffee	56.50%	4,300	36.37%	2,768	6.03%	459	1.09%	83	20.13%	1,532
Grand	56.19%	3,570	36.33%	2,308	5.76%	366	1.71%	109	19.86%	1,262
Park	55.17%	3,677	35.90%	2,393	6.06%	404	2.87%	191	19.27%	1,284
Garfield	53.22%	9,103	35.59%	6,087	9.40%	1,608	1.80%	306	17.63%	3,016
Bent	55.83%	1,096	39.89%	783	2.24%	44	2.04%	40	15.94%	313
Otero	55.83%	4,082	40.52%	2,963	1.89%	138	1.76%	129	15.31%	1,119
San Juan	48.17%	210	34.17%	149	13.30%	58	4.35%	19	14.00%	61
Larimer	52.67%	62,429	38.85%	46,055	6.91%	8,194	1.56%	1,859	13.82%	16,374
La Plata	48.77%	9,993	38.38%	7,864	11.61%	2,378	1.25%	255	10.39%	2,129
Jefferson	51.02%	120,138	42.88%	100,970	4.39%	10,336	1.71%	4,047	8.14%	19,168
Arapahoe	51.47%	97,768	43.49%	82,614	3.66%	6,952	1.38%	2,608	7.98%	15,154
Alamosa	50.49%	2,857	43.38%	2,455	4.68%	265	1.44%	82	7.11%	402
Routt	46.40%	4,472	43.66%	4,208	8.51%	820	1.44%	138	2.74%	264
Eagle	47.18%	7,165	44.59%	6,772	6.88%	1,045	1.35%	206	2.59%	393
Clear Creek	45.63%	2,247	44.44%	2,188	7.19%	354	2.73%	135	1.19%	59
Gunnison	43.23%	3,128	42.27%	3,059	12.81%	927	1.69%	122	0.96%	69
Conejos	48.27%	1,772	47.64%	1,749	2.15%	79	1.93%	71	0.63%	23
Huerfano	46.19%	1,466	47.10%	1,495	5.32%	169	1.39%	44	-0.91%	-29
Saguache	42.63%	1,078	45.27%	1,145	10.32%	261	1.77%	45	-2.64%	-67
Gilpin	40.81%	1,006	44.58%	1,099	11.20%	276	3.40%	84	-3.77%	-93
Adams	44.10%	47,561	50.19%	54,132	3.86%	4,165	1.85%	1,994	-6.09%	-6,571
Summit	40.63%	4,497	47.92%	5,304	10.22%	1,131	1.22%	136	-7.29%	-807
Lake	40.18%	1,056	49.32%	1,296	8.11%	213	2.40%	63	-9.14%	-240
Las Animas	42.16%	2,569	53.22%	3,243	3.27%	199	1.37%	83	-11.06%	-674
Pueblo	42.31%	22,827	53.55%	28,888	2.82%	1,520	1.32%	711	-11.24%	-6,061
Boulder	36.44%	50,873	50.12%	69,983	11.82%	16,498	1.63%	2,272	-13.68%	-19,110
San Miguel	32.04%	1,043	49.09%	1,598	17.20%	560	1.67%	54	-17.05%	-555
Pitkin	32.88%	2,565	53.04%	4,137	12.99%	1,013	1.09%	85	-20.16%	-1,572
Denver	30.87%	61,224	61.86%	122,693	5.86%	11,624	1.42%	2,806	-30.99%	-61,469
Costilla	30.58%	504	63.96%	1,054	4.31%	71	1.15%	19	-33.38%	-550

	Al Gore	George W. Bush	Total
Counties won	13	50	63
Best score	Costilla County (63.96%)	Cheyenne County (78.96%)	.
Counties won under statewide margin (8.36%)	5	8	13
	Huerfano County (0.91%) Saguache County (2.64%) Gilpin County (3.77%) Adams County (6.09%) Summit County (7.29%)	Conejos County (0.63%) Gunnison County (0.96%) Clear Creek County (1.19%) Eagle County (2.59%) Routt County (2.74%) Alamosa County (7.11%) Arapahoe County (7.98%) Jefferson County (8.14%)
Counties won under nationwide margin (0.51%)	0	0	0

By congressional district

Bush won four of six congressional districts.[6]

District	Bush	Gore	Representative
1st	32%	61%	Diana DeGette
2nd	42%	48%	Mark Udall
3rd	53%	39%	Scott McInnis
4th	56%	37%	Bob Schaffer
5th	63%	32%	Joel Hefley
6th	51%	44%	Tom Tancredo

Electors

Technically the voters of Colorado cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Colorado is allocated 8 electors because it has 6 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 8 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 8 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[7] 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:[8][9]

1. Bob Beauprez
2. Marcy Benson
3. Robert Dieter
4. Mary Hergert
5. Robert Martinez
6. Ralph Nagel
7. Lilly Nunez
8. Joe Rogers

References

1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections 2000 - San Miguel County, CO". Retrieved January 7, 2013.
2. "Statewide Precinct Detail" (PDF). State of Hawaii Office of Elections. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
3. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
4. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections 2000 - Colorado". Retrieved January 7, 2013.
5. Our Campaigns; CO US Presidential Election Race, November 07, 2000
6. https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=2000&fips=8&f=0&off=0&elect=0&datatype=cd&def=1
7. http://www.uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/pe2000timeline.php
8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2009-10-25.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
9. http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/electors.php?year=2000&fips=8&f=1&off=0&elect=0