Political experts are seeing parallels between 2020, 2000 election

While many Americans are becoming increasingly anxious as they await the results of the presidential election, it took more than a month for final election results to come in 20 years ago. Political experts say they are seeing some parallels this time around.

“On election night of 2000, I was one of many media. It was about a 37-degree rain most of the night. It was fairly miserable, but, of course, when it's election night, there's a lot of energy,” said Mike Rosen, former FOX 7 Austin political reporter.

Rosen says he can remember the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George Bush like it was yesterday. “It played out for 37 days,” he said.

In 2000, the winner of the election wasn’t decided until more than a month after election day due to the close number of votes for both candidates in Florida and the lengthy legal battles over votes.

“Back then, once we sort of settled into Florida, we knew it might be a while and the nation's eyes were focused really in one place,” said Rosen.

Rosen says he does see some similarities to this year's election compared to the election 20 years ago. Following both elections, Americans took to the streets to voice their frustration demanding every vote be counted. However, there is a clear difference defining the 2020 election.

“2000 was mostly Florida's inability to count. What we're seeing now is elections very close and there's a couple of states still in play,” said Brian Smith, a political science professor at St. Edward’s University.

Smith says in 2000, eyes were glued to Florida as America awaited their final results. Now, a handful of states will be the deciding factor.

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“We know that Donald Trump needs to win almost all of them to get elected, but until the state's finished counting their votes, he still has a legitimate chance,” said Smith.

Both Smith and Rosen agree this election shouldn’t go as long as 37 days. “There is a pathway to victory for both candidates still, in this case, that could at least on paper, be called any time now,” said Rosen.

In the end, the 2000 election was decided by only 537 Florida votes.

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