Have we ever seen outlets call a state and then pull back?

Yes

I think FL was when it was Bush v Gore

Yep

Many. Florida twice in 2000

Happened in 16

Who doesn't miss them some hanging chads?!

They took forever with WI, MI, and PA. Michigan was completely done, they called PA without all the vote in before it.

Don't forget that most of the networks actually called FL while Gore had a razor thin lead and polls were still open in the deep red counties in the Central Time Zone. It was a deliberate attempt to suppress Republican votes.

Yes, after the recounts and a SC decision Bush was declared the winner.

quote:

---

Don't forget that most of the networks actually called FL while Gore had a razor thin lead and polls were still open in the deep red counties in the Central Time Zone. It was a deliberate attempt to suppress Republican votes.

---

I remember that night perfectly. I was helping run the GWB campaign, two weeks or so before the election I told (then) governor Bush we needed his brother to deliver Florida because it would all come down to it.

The night of the election, I went out of campaign HQ to take a call and when I walked back in it was like a morgue. I asked a staffer what happened and they said the networks called Florida for Gore. I looked at the underlying data (where reporting, percentages in, etc) and got on a chair and yelled "get back to work its too early for them to call it". I left a little later for another call and when I walked back in the party had started I asked what was up and that time they called it for Bush.

I looked at the data and made the same announcement. I could tell the calls were premature based on spread and locations reporting.