Adam McKay was head writer at "Saturday Night Live" during the 2000 election, a heady era for the sketch show that saw the phrase "strategery" become lodged in the nation's consciousness, Darrell Hammond's Al Gore explain his "lockbox" and a blue-suit clad Will Ferrell dance as Janet Reno.

But one of McKay's most vivid memories from that time was seeing a colleague from Florida filling out his absentee ballot. "I just jokingly said, 'You better hurry up and get that out," McKay recalls. "It's going to determine the election."