The 2016 Election Made Florida Another Close State

Florida is once again the most contested battleground state on Election Night 2016. The presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in Florida has been a tight one since polls closed at 7 p.m. ET. According to CNN, votes are still being counted in the traditionally "blue" Palm Beach County, which could give Clinton a slight edge. But the tight race has caused some to wonder if this is the tightest presidential race in Florida in election history?

The Florida race has been much too close to call, with the lead constantly fluctuating between Trump and Clinton. At the time of this writing, with over 90 percent of the polls reporting, Trump led Clinton in Florida by just over 100,000 votes — or 48.9 percent of the vote for Trump compared to Clinton's 48 percent.

Trump needs Florida to win the Electoral College and take the presidency, further heightening the drama of this already-frightening theatrical race. But this would hardly be the first time that a presidential race came down to the large chunk of electoral votes offered by the Sunshine State.

Is this the closest race in Florida ever? It doesn't look like it at the moment, but with precincts still being counted, there's a chance it could become an even tighter race. Still, the 2016 presidential race in Florida likely won't be as close as the 2000 presidential race, which triggered a controversial recount process and a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court case.

In 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush clinched Florida over then-Vice President Al Gore on Election Night by a margin of 1,784 votes. The trouble with Florida started early that night. Several news networks called Florida for Gore after the polls closed in the eastern part of the state. However, news networks were forced to reverse that initial call hours later after polls in the panhandle, which is in a different time zone than the rest of the state, closed.

After the infamous recount process and a controversial stay from the Supreme Court, Bush was declared the winner in Florida in December 2000 with a margin of just 537 votes. The final percentage tally was 48.85 percent for Bush to 48.4 percent for Gore.

The 2016 presidential race in Florida is not expected to come down to just 500 votes, but we can expect a nail-biting contest until all 100 percent of precincts are reported.