The Green Party candidate, Mr Ralph Nader, won less than five per cent of the popular vote but his candidacy appeared to have a huge impact on the election, especially in Florida, where a recount was called.
Though the veteran consumers' advocate resisted the title of "spoiler" throughout his campaign, he could not escape that unavoidable conclusion as the race for the White House hinged on a state where he drew nearly 100,000 votes.
According to Mr Paul Begala, a former adviser to President Clinton, the majority, "if not all," of the votes cast for Mr Nader in the last five states would have gone to Mr Gore, leading to a win.
"If Nader wasn't in the race, Gore would have picked up all those key states," he said.
Exit polling data from Florida showed that about three-quarters of the 92,000 voters who chose Mr Nader would have chosen Mr Gore had it been a two-party race, which would have delivered the presidential win to the Democrat, according to cable news channel MSNBC.
In Wisconsin the data were similar. Again the two major party candidates were in a statistical dead heat, at 48 per cent, with Mr Bush leading Mr Gore by fewer than 10,000 votes. Mr Nader won four per cent of the votes - about 82,000.
Oregon, another of Mr Nader's targets, gave the Green Party candidate just over 37,000 votes, or four per cent. Mr Gore, who had been predicted to win Oregon, trailed his Republican rival by 27,000 votes there.
The 26,000 votes cast for Mr Nader in Iowa, comprising two per cent of the popular vote, could have helped Mr Gore shore up his minuscule lead in the state, but the votes taken by Mr Nader did not impede the Democrat from winning there.
Mr Nader's stated goal was not to win the presidential election but to win five per cent of the popular vote, which would have made the Green Party eligible for federal funding in the next electoral cycle.
Exit polls early yesterday showed that he had won three per cent of the popular vote overall, with just over two million votes cast in his favour, possibly contributing to Mr Bush's win.
Polling data from states on which Mr Nader concentrated showed that he had not made as big a dent in the election as he had hoped.
In California he won only four per cent. He won four per cent in Colorado, New Hampshire and Connecticut. Vermont gave him seven per cent of its popular vote and Minnesota six per cent.
"The Green Party was well organised in a handful of states that did well for us," said his assistant press secretary, Mr Tom Adkins.
"But we need to expand nationally, to get the word out and compete in local races so that people, in the future, have no hesitation in pulling the Green Party lever."
The Nader campaign - which attracted diverse support which included Hollywood celebrities Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore and musicians Ani DeFranco and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam - raised $6 million dollars for his 2000 bid.