In 2000 Barbara Lett-Simmons, a District of Columbia elector for Al Gore, cast a blank ballot.1 The National Archives describes this as effectively abstaining, so the District cast only two of its three electoral votes for a candidate for president and vice president.2 She withheld her vote to protest the District's lack of representation in Congress.3
Electors who do not vote for the candidates they were pledged to are commonly called faithless electors, and a Congressional Research Service report lists her blank ballot alongside those cases.4 The 2000 election was close: George W. Bush received a majority of electoral votes but fewer popular votes than Gore.5 The same CRS report noted that without the blank vote, the tally would have been 271 electoral votes for Bush and 267 for Gore, rather than 266.6 Her abstention did not affect the outcome of the election.7
George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr., but received a majority of electoral votes. An elector from the District of Columbia "cast a blank ballot", effectively abstaining, so DC cast only 2 of its 3 electoral votes for a candidate for both President and Vice President.
National Archives, Electoral College results for 2000, archives.gov, read October 3, 2026. Quoted as published.
Sources for each sentence
Each numbered entry quotes the words that support that sentence, as they appear on the linked page.
- Back to sentence 1
Barbara Lett-Simmons, a District of Columbia elector for Albert Gore, Jr. (D), cast a blank ballot.
everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30804.html - Back to sentence 2
effectively abstaining, so DC cast only 2 of its 3 electoral votes for a candidate for both President and Vice President.
archives.gov/electoral-college/2000 - Back to sentence 3
did not cast her vote in order to protest the lack of congressional representation for Washington, DC.
archive.fairvote.org/?page=973 Her abstention was meant to protest the lack of Congressional representation for Washington, DC.
archive.fairvote.org/e_college/faithless.htm - Back to sentence 4
Contemporary incidents of the "faithless elector," and the one elector who cast a blank ballot, have occurred in the following presidential election years:
everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30804.html - Back to sentence 5
George W. Bush received fewer popular votes than Albert Gore Jr., but received a majority of electoral votes.
archives.gov/electoral-college/2000 - Back to sentence 6
The only change to electoral vote totals in 2000 under the automatic plan would have been elimination of the blank vote cast by a District of Columbia elector.
everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30804.html Thus, the tally would have been 271 electoral votes for Bush/Cheney and 267 (as opposed to 266) for Gore/Lieberman.
everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30804.html - Back to sentence 7
Her abstention did not affect the outcome of the election.
archive.fairvote.org/?page=973
Sources checked on October 3, 2026
Every sentence above links to the page it comes from, with the exact words quoted. On that date a script re-read each cited page and confirmed that every quote is on it. How these stories are made · Report an error