2000 United States presidential election in Arizona explained

The 2000 United States presidential election in Arizona 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.

Arizona was won by Governor George W. Bush by a 6.3 point margin of victory. Ralph Nader received 3%, whilst all of the other candidates received a combined 1%. Pre-election polling showed that Bush had a solid lead over Gore.^[1] Bush won all the congressional districts, except Arizona's 2nd congressional district. The key for Bush's victory was Maricopa County, which has by far the highest population in the state. After breaking the longest Republican streak in the last election, last voting Democratic in 1948 prior to 1996, Arizona made a return to the Republican column in 2000. Bush made history by winning Greenlee County, the first Republican presidential candidate to ever do so.^[2] This thinly populated working class county, which has been dependent on copper mining as the basis for its economy, had previously voted Democratic in every election since Arizona achieved statehood in 1912, but has not done so since.

Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Coconino or Pima Counties since Arizona statehood, as well as the first to do so without carrying Santa Cruz County since Herbert Hoover in 1928.

Results

2000 United States presidential election in Arizona[3] [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George W. Bush	781,652	51.0%	8
	Democratic	Al Gore	685,341	44.7%	0
	Green	Ralph Nader	45,645	3.0%	0
	Reform	Patrick Buchanan	12,373	0.8%	0
	Libertarian	L. Neil Smith	5,775	0.4%	0
	Write-ins	Various candidates	2,097	0.1%	0
	Natural Law	John Hagelin	1,120	0.1%	0
	Constitution	Howard Phillips	110	0.0%	0
Totals			1,534,113	100.0%	8
Voter turnout					40%

Results by county

County	George W. Bush[5] Republican		Al Gore Democratic		Ralph Nader Green		Pat Buchanan Reform		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
		%		%		%		%		%		%
	Apache		5,947		30.57%		13,025		66.95%		245		1.26%		135		0.69%		104		0.54%		-7,078		-36.38%		19,456
	Cochise		18,180		54.69%		13,360		40.19%		1,113		3.35%		315		0.95%		273		0.82%		4,820		14.50%		33,241
	Coconino		17,562		42.96%		20,280		49.60%		2,478		6.06%		244		0.60%		319		0.78%		-2,718		-6.64%		40,883
	Gila		9,158		51.64%		7,700		43.41%		497		2.80%		227		1.28%		154		0.87%		1,458		8.23%		17,736
	Graham		6,007		62.16%		3,355		34.73%		144		1.49%		131		1.36%		27		0.28%		2,652		27.43%		9,664
	Greenlee		1,619		54.70%		1,216		41.08%		68		2.30%		42		1.42%		15		0.51%		403		13.62%		2,960
	La Paz		2,543		56.73%		1,769		39.46%		91		2.03%		53		1.18%		27		0.61%		774		17.27%		4,483
	Maricopa		479,967		53.23%		386,683		42.88%		22,465		2.49%		7,156		0.79%		5,428		0.60%		93,284		10.35%		901,699
	Mohave		24,386		55.25%		17,470		39.58%		1,323		3.00%		622		1.41%		340		0.77%		6,916		15.67%		44,141
	Navajo		12,386		49.25%		11,794		46.90%		517		2.06%		266		1.06%		184		0.73%		592		2.35%		25,147
	Pima		124,579		43.31%		147,688		51.34%		12,355		4.30%		1,731		0.60%		1,287		0.44%		-23,109		-8.03%		287,640
	Pinal		20,122		48.73%		19,650		47.59%		904		2.19%		442		1.07%		172		0.42%		472		1.14%		41,290
	Santa Cruz		3,344		37.60%		5,233		58.84%		217		2.44%		44		0.49%		55		0.62%		-1,889		-21.24%		8,893
	Yavapai		40,144		58.84%		24,063		35.27%		2,733		4.01%		749		1.10%		539		0.79%		16,081		23.57%		68,228
	Yuma		15,708		54.82%		12,055		42.07%		495		1.73%		216		0.75%		178		0.63%		3,653		12.75%		28,652
Total	781,652	50.95%	685,341	44.67%	45,645	2.98%	12,373	0.81%	9,102	0.60%	96,311	6.28%	1,534,113

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Gila (Largest city: Payson)
• Greenlee (Largest city: Clifton)
• La Paz (Largest city: Parker)
• Navajo (Largest city: Show Low)
• Pinal (Largest city: San Tan Valley)

Results by congressional district

Bush won five of six congressional districts.^[6]

District	Bush	Gore	Representative
	51%	44%		Matt Salmon
			Jeff Flake
		34%	62%		Ed Pastor
		56%	40%		Bob Stump
		52%	44%		John Shadegg
		49%	46%		Jim Kolbe
		51%	45%		J.D. Hayworth

Electors

See main article: List of 2000 United States presidential electors.

Technically the voters of Arizona cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Arizona is allocated eight 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:

1. Joe Arpaio
2. Linda Barber
3. Dennis Booth
4. Webb Crockett
5. Paul Robert Fannin
6. LaVelle McCoy
7. Susan Minnaugh
8. Frank Straka

Notes and References

1. Web site: Eugene Register-Guard . Google News Archive Search. news.google.com.
2. Menendez Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004, p. 121
3. Web site: How close were U.S. Presidential Elections? . November 23, 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120825102042/http://www.mit.edu/~mi22295/elections.html#2000 . August 25, 2012 .
4. Web site: 2000 Presidential General Election Results – Arizona.
5. Our campaigns; AZ US President Race, November 07, 2000
6. Web site: 2000 Presidential General Election Results – Arizona.
7. Web site: 2000 Post-Election Timeline of Events. uselectionatlas.org.