At one o’clock Wednesday morning, the state of Iowa was declared in democrat Al Gore’s column, but republican George Bush was declared the national winner at about two o’clock and the cheers erupted at Iowa Republican headquarters. Things changed by three o’clock, when Florida’s tally was thrown into question. There’s to be a re-count of votes in the Sunshine State, as Bush leads Gore by less than eight hundred votes in Florida. Secretary of State Chet Culver, Iowa’s Commissioner of Elections, says a recount here is unlikely and Gore’s 5,253 vote edge in Iowa will likely stand. Over one-point-three million votes were cast in Iowa, and Culver says it’ll be a record. With 99 percent of Iowa precincts reporting, Gore received 633,969 votes (49 percent); Bush received 628,716 (48 percent); Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received 27,898 votes (2 percent); and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan received 6,942 votes (1 percent).
