“Your vote really, really, really counts,” Gore says in Florida. “You can consider me as an exhibit A of that truth” https://t.co/6ip0I0PN6I
— CNN (@CNN) October 11, 2016
Al Gore announced last week he would be joining Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail to help her secure the interest of younger Millennial voters. As proof of this, the former vice president and Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at a campaign stop in Miami on Tuesday — the same battleground state where he lost to Republican rival George W. Bush in the contested 2000 election. And to the surprise of no one, Gore mentioned the 2000 election while impressing upon his audience the importance of voting.
“Your vote really, really, really counts a lot. You can consider me an exhibit A of that truth,” Gore explained to the crowd, breaking slightly while mentioning his own example. “For those of you who are younger than 25, you might not remember the election of 2000 and what happened here in Florida and across the country. For those of you older than 25, I heard you murmuring just now, but take it from me — it was a very close election.”
Gore then tried to continue his remarks with an additional point about the importance of voting, but the crowd drowned him out with the repeated chant, “You won!” Gore chuckled slightly at the audience’s suggestion, but quickly moved on:
“Here’s my point: I don’t want you to be in a position years from now where you welcome Hillary Clinton and say, ‘Actually you did win, it just wasn’t close enough to make sure all the votes were counted,’ or whatever. Elections have consequences. Your vote counts. Your vote has consequences.”
Sixteen years ago, Gore lost the Florida popular vote to Bush by 537 votes, thereby garnering none of the state’s 25 electoral votes. Of course this conclusion wasn’t attained for a momentous 36 days, during which the state’s efforts to recount its votes complimented a complicated court battle between the two presidential campaigns.
