Editorial: Can it get any closer than this?

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

What a night it was. For those voters watching television coverage of the presidential election Tuesday, it was a nail-biter all evening -- and the cliffhanger continues today. Al Gore barely holds the lead in the nation's popular vote -- a margin of 200,000 votes out of more than 96 million ballots cast. But since the Electoral College determines who wins the White House, and because neither Gore nor George W. Bush have wrapped up the needed 270 electoral votes to claim victory, the fate of the election rests with a recount of Florida's election. For those who still wonder if their votes matter, consider this: Bush has a precarious lead of fewer than 1,700 votes out of nearly 6 million ballots cast in Florida.

It appeared early that Gore was on the verge of winning the White House when all the television networks projected that he would capture Florida, a key battleground state, shortly after the polls closed. That prediction, though, was short-lived as red-faced networks had to reverse themselves a short time later, placing Florida in the undecided column when it became clear the state was too close to call.

All of a sudden the race was neck-and-neck -- and Nevada was one of only five states left that still were up in the air. In the end, Nevada's four electoral votes went to Bush. A short time later the networks predicted Bush would win Florida's 25 electoral votes and, with it, the presidency. But then one of the most bizarre moments in the history of presidential elections occurred. Gore, who had already conceded to Bush in a phone call, held off making his public concession speech after learning at the last moment that the Florida race was much closer than the news organizations had predicted.

The networks, which had once already been burned by prematurely awarding the state to Gore, had to backtrack again. An hour after declaring Bush the next president, they said the race actually was too close to call after all, sending viewers on an another roller-coaster ride. The night became even more surreal as late returns from California and elsewhere in the nation showed Gore taking the lead in the popular vote. It's rare for a president to win the presidency without winning a majority of the popular vote, but it has happened three times -- in 1824, 1876 and 1888. The reason this can happen is that in presidential elections the vote in the states -- except for Nebraska and Maine -- is decided on a winner-take-all basis.

The presidential election vote is separated by the barest of margins, but it doesn't end there, extending to Congress as well. Tuesday's results show that the Republican majority in the House is still slim, with the GOP apparently holding a 223-210 majority over Democrats (there also are two members from other parties). Meanwhile, the Republican majority in the Senate slipped, with the GOP expected to hold no more than 51 seats, and the possibility of a 50-50 tie still existing. Nevada's congressional delegation is a microcosm of our national government's partisan division as well. Republican John Ensign's victory in the U.S. Senate race means he will join Democrat Harry Reid, who beat Ensign two years ago by only 428 votes. Nevada's two House seats are in the hands of Democrat Shelley Berkley and Republican Jim Gibbons.

If there is any certainty to be gleaned from these muddled developments, it is that there is no resounding mandate that either party can claim. Despite their public angst about divided government, maybe Americans deep down are comforted by the lack of decisive majorities by either party, believing it is a check to prevent one party from amassing too much power. In any event, it is now up to both parties to make this near-equal balance work in the public's favor.