Pollster: Bush 2000 win due to media calling race

CONCORD, N.H. --A former national pollster argues in his new book that Al Gore really won the 2000 presidential election, but premature calls by the media for George Bush took Gore's victory away.

David Moore's book, "How to Steal an Election," argues Al Gore rightfully won the presidency.

Moore, a former University of New Hampshire professor, said he knows his premise is a "hard sell" and insists the book is not partisan.

His former bosses -- the Gallup Poll -- disagreed and fired him after he told them about the book last spring, he said.

Gallup General Counsel Steve O'Brien told the Concord Monitor on Wednesday that writing the book was a "colossally stupid" thing for Moore to do given the polling firm's nonpartisan mission. O'Brien scoffed at the idea that any book with such a title could be impartial.

Moore disagrees and believes he was being "as objective as you can be about what really happened."

"All I do is present evidence about how an election was stolen," he said.

Moore founded the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in the 1970s but left in 1993 to take a job with the Gallup Poll.

His book focuses on the people who analyzed the votes for network television in 2000. He argues that the networks too quickly put Florida in Bush's win column -- effectively giving him the electoral votes needed for victory and influencing the ultimate outcome when the fight over who won Florida went to court.

Moore said even though the networks rescinded the call within hours, Gore looked like a sore loser for seeking a recount in Florida.

That impression influenced not only public opinion but also judicial outlook, making it possible for the U.S. Supreme Court to shut down the recount, Moore argues.

Fox called the race for Bush at 2:15 a.m. NBC followed, then CBS/CNN's joint team and finally ABC. Two hours later, they all retracted that projection.

Moore also noted Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is Bush's brother and a cousin, John Ellis, was on Fox's team that called the race. Ellis said he made the call by looking at the vote tallies and making back-of-the-envelope calculations.

"Why would Jeb Bush care whether Fox called it at 2:15 in the morning or at 8:15 in the morning? Why would he care?" Moore told the Monitor. "Why would you care if you know you're going to win, if you absolutely know you're going to win, does it matter whether Fox calls it? Of course not."

Moore said networks were blinded by competition and rushed to call the race after Fox -- a charge the other networks deny.

Moore said on election night 2000 he observed the team calling the elections for CBS and CNN. Just after 1 a.m., Moore said he asked the head of the CBS/CNN team why he hadn't called Florida for Bush. The team leader said the margin was too small, but Moore said the network called the race an hour later, minutes after Fox and NBC.

CBS's team leader insisted he was almost ready to call the race when the others did.

Moore believes the pressure was too great for the network to wait and the rush to be first still affects accuracy in calling races.

Bush won Florida by 537 votes.

A media consortium conducted a manual recount of contested ballots and found that Gore would still have lost if the recount he had sought had been done. Gore wanted a recount in a few counties. The consortium said a statewide recount probably would have given Gore the election by about 100 votes.

Moore's book has been released only to a few bookstores. Its official release is next month.

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Information from: Concord Monitor, http://www.cmonitor.com