In the end, the Electoral College outcome may have been the one vote in election 2000 that could have easily been predicted -- with a narrow but resounding victory for Texas Governor George W. Bush.
The Republican president-elect's supporters maintained unwavering unity on Monday, with Nevada's four electors putting him over the top with a total of 271 votes, one more than the Constitution requires.
Now all that remains is for Congress to tally the votes on Jan. 6, and then the inauguration.
The results, despite the remote possibility of rogue electors, were expected -- unlike Election Day itself, the recounts that followed, or any of the contentious and complex decisions from the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court.
"It's a little anticlimactic, but it's darn exciting," said Chuck Clay, Georgia's Republican chairman and a Bush elector. "I think we all felt pretty certain of the outcome. But you just want it over."
Usually, the Electoral College is a little-noticed hour or two of paperwork, ceremony and maybe lunch for the party faithful.
Not this year.
The meetings in every state capital and the District of Columbia were swarming with reporters and cameras, students, color guards and visitors in costume.
The vote took on added suspense because of the closeness of the race, and the slim possibility that Bush's victory could be overturned.
As the day began, Bush held a 271-267 lead over Gore among the 538 pledged electors. The number of electoral votes each state gets depends on the size of its population. A switch by three Bush electors, along with the uncast Gore vote, could throw the election to the House. A switch by four Bush electors and the election was Gore's.
In many states, electors are bound by law to keep their pledge. But other states -- like Florida -- have no such law. Some scholars say such laws probably are unenforceable.
Several electors in the past have broken their pledge, most recently in 1988, but never in a close election where it could change the result.
Gore's running mate, Joseph Lieberman, discouraged vote-switching as he thanked Connecticut voters for re-electing him to the Senate.
"Al Gore and I don't expect any surprises," Lieberman said.
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