NASHVILLE, Tenn.-Heavy rain began to fall as officials announced that Vice President Al Gore seemed to lose this historic presidential election early this morning, but an unbelievably tight race for Florida's 25 pivotal electoral votes has thrown that result into question.
The cascading rain throughout the city was accompanied by tears from Gore campaign officials, volunteers and supporters.
Gore began his quest for the White House 13 years ago, when he first pursued a bid for the presidency. But his long journey seemed to end in defeat today, as he apparently lost what may be the closest presidential election in American history.
The discrepancy arises from a Florida race that as of 4:30 a.m., placed Bush ahead of Gore by about 200 votes.
The closeness of the race means the Florida vote automatically will be recounted, according to state law.
As of press time, Gore garnered 249 electoral votes and 48 percent of the popular vote, but it was not enough to topple Texas Gov. George W. Bush's 271 electoral votes and 49 percent of the popular vote. But by 4 a.m., NBC declared the race too close to call and said Bush had not definitely won Florida's votes.
Florida appeared to serve as the deciding factor in Bush's apparent victory, with the state's 25 electoral votes putting him above the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
Early yesterday evening, all major networks predicted a Florida victory for Gore, but later those same networks announced the race was too close to call. It was not until about 2:30 a.m., after votes in all precincts were counted, that the Sunshine State, home of Bush's brother Gov. Jeb Bush (R), delivered apparent victory to Bush. But about two hours later, the networks held that victory in question, again declaring Florida too close to call.
Up until officials' announcement of Bush's victory, Gore spokespeople insisted the remaining Florida counties, located in South Florida, were Democratic strongholds and would come through for the vice president.
Ironically, officials originally called this the first election in three decades that would be decided by West Coast voters - but East Coast Floridians made the seemingly decisive vote.
Gore officials discussed the possibility of electoral fraud in certain areas of the country, including Florida, but they did not make any statements as to whether they will take action on the issue.
Many Palm Beach County, Fla. residents apparently received incorrect sample ballots, and because of this voted for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan instead of Gore.
Several ballot boxes in South Florida also disappeared for much of the day, but were located early this morning.
Two critical states that Gore did not win were his home state of Tennessee and President Bill Clinton's home of Arkansas.
"I'm very disappointed the state of Tennessee couldn't elect his own son," Gore volunteer Al Greer said.
Several analysts pointed to Green Party candidate Ralph Nader as a detrimental factor to Gore's campaign, noting that most of the voters who marked their ballots for Nader most likely would have supported Gore.
Nader ultimately did serve as a deciding factor in key holdout battleground states such as Florida and Wisconsin.
Surprising some analysts and campaign officials, the reportedly high voter turnout did not favor the Democrats.
Earlier in the day Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said high voter turnout almost always favors his party.
Hattaway announced "the pundits have had their say and today the voters will have their say."
Indeed, optimism remained high throughout the day - Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Jenny Backus stressed that the experts at Gore headquarters were very optimistic and enthusiastic.
"These are people who have worked on many presidential campaigns and they're saying they're very encouraged by what they're seeing," Backus said in the afternoon.
With such a close election absentee ballots may well have proved influential in the outcome as well.
Gore officials admitted early yesterday that this is almost always not good for Democrats.
"Democrats are traditionally behind Republicans in absentee ballots," Hattaway said.
Gore campaign officials and supporters expressed collective dismay at the apparent Bush presidency.
Noted Hollywood director Rob Reiner said the American voters focused too much on personality than capability.
"We're not electing a prom king here," Reiner said. "We're electing someone as president of the United States, the most important job in the world."
He said voters chose the candidate "they would most like to have a beer with."
Many Nashville residents voiced similar opinions, saying they feared a Bush presidency.
"I can't believe any woman, black or member of the working class would have the courage even to support Bush," said Lucian Patterson, Gore volunteer and steelworkers' union member.
Early in the morning, there was still no indication of a clear victor in the race.
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