Although New Jersey had voted for Democrat Bill Clinton in the past two elections (1992 and 1996),[1] it was considered a potential swing state in 2000 because pre-election polling data showed it to be a close race.[2][3] Al Gore won 56 percent of New Jersey's popular vote, beating out George W. Bush by about a sixteen-point margin, with Gore's biggest margins of victory in Essex County and Hudson County where he won over seventy percent of the vote. Bush won 7 counties with his biggest margins being just over 57 percent in Hunterdon County and Sussex County. Nader got over four percent of the vote in several counties in the northwest of the state, while taking just under three percent statewide.[4] This was also the first presidential election since 1976, in which New Jersey would back the losing candidate as well. As of the 2024 presidential election[update], this is the last election in which Monmouth County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[5]
Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Bergen County, Burlington County, or Monmouth County, as well as the state of New Jersey since Benjamin Harrison in 1888. Bush became the first Republican to win without Union County since James A. Garfield in 1880. Bush was the first Republican to ever win the Presidency without Passaic and Gloucester counties, and the only Republican to ever win without Salem County.
New Jersey was one of ten states that backed George H. W. Bush for president in 1988 that didn't back George W. Bush in either 2000 or 2004.
Technically the voters of NJ cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. NJ is allocated 15 electors because it has 13 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 15 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 15 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[10] 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 Gore and Lieberman:[11]
