It was the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2000: Election Day.
I was in seventh grade at the time and the topic dominated conversation at Lawton Chiles Middle School for the past week; we even had a debate in my language arts class (all reflecting the views of our parents). The precinct where my parents voted in Seminole County had a separate voting booth for us young ones to participate in as a student mock election.
It being Tuesday, my younger brother had a baseball game at the Oviedo Sports Complex. Dad went along with him while I stayed home to watch Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, Brian Williams and Katie Couric on the only television network that matters, the National Broadcasting Company, The Peacock, NBC.
First pitch was at 7 p.m. (EST); the same time the polls close. There are a few quotes that I vividly remember and probably will for the rest of my life, such as Russert writing and pointing to his white board, saying, “Florida, Florida, Florida.”
A little after the polls closed, NBC called Florida for Al Gore. This being 2000, a modern age with cellular phones, there was no mobile news feed. I called my dad and relayed the information figuring he’d be excited.
I sat in my living room continuing to watch the returns. For those of you who don’t know, Floridians who reside between the Perdido and Chattahoochee Rivers live in Central Standard Time. At 8 p.m. eastern, the upper Panhandle (Florida author Al Burt called it “Floribama”) began to trickle in. Uh-oh!
“What the networks giveth, the networks taketh away,” declared Brokaw at 9:26 p.m. The phrase, which preceded NBC taking Florida out of Gore’s column, is burned into my mind to this day.
Again, I called my dad, who was still at my brother’s baseball game, to relay the news. Meanwhile on NBC, Couric uttered what we were all thinking: “What is going on in Florida?”
Later than night I stayed up and watched NBC with pops. At 2:16 a.m., the networks are calling the election for the governor of Texas, George W. Bush. At some point in the morning, Gore calls Bush back to rescind his earlier concession phone call.
By the time the final editions of the newspapers left the presses, the election was still in limbo. Whoever won Florida’s 25 electoral votes would get pushed above the requisite 270 for the presidency.
The 2000 election and ensuing recounts dragged on until Dec. 12 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore, effectively stealing the election for Gov. Bush. This was something that was discussed in classes at Lawton Chiles Middle for the next 40 days.
My home, my Seminole County, left the world waiting for its initial recount tallies and also got sued in a case that made its way up to the Supreme Court of Florida in Jacobs v. Seminole County Canvassing Board. Volusia County, which sits to the east of Seminole, was ground zero.
The lawsuit worked itself all the way up to the Supreme Court in Bush v. the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board. Craig Waters became a household name due to his role as spokesman for the Florida Supreme Court, a position he continues to hold.
Because of my proximity and the gravity of the situation, I’ve been interested in politics ever since that night. I will always remember the events that transpired those evenings and early morning hours, days, weeks and month or so afterwards.
Hopefully the 2012 general election on Nov. 6 will not be so close of a call. I don’t care who you vote for, the important thing is that you exercise your right to do so.
fkurtz@mail.usf.edu
