The winner of the popular vote was not the winner of the Electoral College vote.
The Electoral College vote was extremely close.
For the 2000 elections, republican candidate George Bush, who was at the time governor of Texas won the elections with 271 votes from the electoral votes, agaisnt 266 of Al gore´s electoral votes.
The popular votes on the other hand reflected a difference of almost 450,000 votes for Gore, this was the 4th time that the electoral vote didn´t reflect the popular vote, also was the closest election since 1876.