11 0 50.4% 47.1% | 1,189,924 1,111,138 Start date November 7, 2000 | |
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As part of the 2000 United States presidential election the state of Missouri chose 11 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
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Missouri was a critical swing state. George W. Bush won the popular vote by a margin of just over 3% against his Democratic challenger, Al Gore. President Bush would more than double that margin of victory in 2004 over his next challenger, John Kerry. Missouri continued a bellwether reputation that it maintained throughout most of the 20th century by voting for the eventual winner of the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
Primaries
Electors
Technically the voters of Missouri cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Missouri is allocated 11 electors because it has 9 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 11 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 11 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 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 George W. Bush and Dick Cheney:
- David Barklage
- Bruce Bredeman
- Marc Ellinger
- Gordon Elliott
- John Hancock
- Stan Horacek
- Homer Johnson
- John Judd
- Michael Kort
- Dennis Owens
- Al Rotskoff