EXAMPLE 3 Plurality Voting and the 2000 Presidential Election

On the evening of December 12, 2000, Al Gore conceded the presidential election of 2000 to George W. Bush, thus bringing to a close one of the most remarkable elections in modern times. The outcome, ultimately decided in the Electoral College, came down to whether Bush or Gore would carry Florida. With more than 6 million votes cast in Florida, the ultimate margin of victory for George W. Bush was only a few hundred votes.

There is little doubt that if the 2000 presidential election had pitted Al Gore solely against any one of the other three candidates, then Gore would have won both the election in Florida and the presidency. The point is that while most of the Buchanan supporters probably would have voted for Bush, the far more numerous Nader supporters probably would have gone largely for Gore. In fact, the illustration of Condorcet’s method that we gave in Example 2 is a simplified version of this Florida election (with GB standing for George Bush, AG for Al Gore, PB for Patrick Buchanan, and RN for Ralph Nader).

Thus, although plurality voting led to Bush’s winning the 2000 election in Florida (and hence the presidency), Gore was, in this example, what is called a Condorcet winner: He would have won the election if Condorcet’s method had been used.