Electoral College

Examples of Electoral College in the following topics:

• The Election of 1888

  • In the election of 1888, President Grover Cleveland lost to Republican Benjamin Harrison in the Electoral College despite winning the popular vote.
  • The economy was prosperous and the nation was at peace, but Cleveland lost reelection in the Electoral College, even though he won a plurality of the popular vote by a narrow margin.
  • Harrison swept almost the entire North and Midwest, losing only Connecticut and New Jersey, but carried the swing states of New York and Indiana to achieve a majority of the electoral vote.
  • Unlike the election of 1884, the power of the Tammany Hall political machine in New York City helped deny Cleveland the electoral votes of his home state.

• The Republican Victory

  • In the end, Jefferson won a narrow victory over Adams (73 to 65 electoral votes) with New York casting the decisive vote.
  • Other decisive factors in the Jefferson victory were Jefferson's popularity in the South, and the effective campaigning of Aaron Burr in New York State, where the legislature (which selected the electoral college) shifted from Federalist to Democratic-Republican and cast the deciding vote.
  • With the two parties tied 65-65 in the Electoral College, the last state to vote, South Carolina, chose eight Republicans, giving the election to Jefferson and Burr.
  • Furthermore, this system of balloting was changed by the Twelfth Amendment (1804), which called for a "party ticket" (one president and one vice-presidential candidate) that the Electoral College had to cast votes for, rather than selecting individuals.
  • Figures indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

• The Election of 1824

  • Electors were chosen by popular vote in eighteen states, while the six remaining states used the older system in which state legislatures chose electors.
  • The Electoral College, however, was another matter.
  • Of the 261 electoral votes, Jackson needed 131 or more to win but secured only 99.
  • Because Jackson did not receive a majority vote from the Electoral College, the election was decided following the terms of the Twelfth Amendment, which stipulated that when a candidate did not receive a majority of electoral votes, the election went to the House of Representatives, where each state would provide one vote.
  • This map of the Electoral College votes of 1824 illustrates the number of electoral votes allotted to each candidate in each state.

• The Election of 1796

  • In 1796, voters only could cast ballots for electors in the Electoral College, not for the presidential candidates themselves, and not all electors publicly declared their political preferences.
  • Some state legislatures even selected the members of the Electoral College.
  • Moreover, the voting method in the Electoral College did not account for party tickets: The writers of the Constitution had not envisioned competing political factions.
  • Jefferson received the second-highest number of electoral votes and was elected vice president according to the prevailing rules of electoral college voting.
  • This map illustrates the 1796 presidential election results, with presidential electoral votes by state.

• Lincoln and Republican Victory in 1860

  • In 1860, many observers noted that the Republicans had an almost unbeatable advantage in the Electoral College because they dominated almost every Northern state.
  • Lincoln won in the Electoral College with less than 40 percent of the popular vote nationwide, leading contemporaries to cite the split in the Democratic Party as a contributing factor to Lincoln's victory.
  • Like Lincoln in the North, Southern Democrat Breckinridge won no electoral votes outside of the South.
  • He finished second in the Electoral College with 72 votes, carrying 11 of 15 slave states.
  • Douglas was the only candidate to win electoral votes in both the North and the South (in New Jersey and Missouri), but he finished last in the Electoral College.

• The Compromise of 1877

  • The need for a compromise is suggested by the congressional disagreement about the electoral proceedings.
  • Tilden had won the popular vote by almost a quarter of a million votes, but he did not have a clear Electoral College majority.
  • A total of 185 votes constituted an Electoral College majority; hence, Tilden needed only one of the disputed votes, while Hayes needed all twenty.
  • Since the Constitution did not explicitly indicate how Electoral College disputes were to be resolved, Congress was forced to consider other methods to settle the crisis.
  • The committees ultimately settled upon creating an Electoral Commission.

• The Election of 1856

  • Although Buchanan won the election and Frémont received fewer than 600 votes in all slave states, the results in the Electoral College indicated that the Republican Party could succeed in the next election if they won just two more states.
  • Buchanan had won 45.3 percent of the popular vote and 174 electoral votes whereas Frémont had won 33.1 percent of the popular vote and 114 electoral votes.
  • Fillmore won 21.6 percent of the popular vote and eight electoral votes.

• The 2012 Presidential Election

  • Requiring 270 electoral votes to win the election, Obama received 303 electoral votes, while Romney earned 206.
  • While Romney lost the popular vote by a slight margin, he lost the electoral college by a much greater margin.
  • Census changed the apportionment of votes in the Electoral College, potentially altering the allocation of votes among swing states.
  • Some states enacted new electoral laws in 2011.
  • These measures were criticized as strategies to impede certain groups of voters, including college students, African Americans, and Latinx Americans.

• The Election of 1984

  • Reagan won the election of 1984 in a landslide, winning 58.8% of the popular vote to Mondale's 40.6% and a record 525 electoral votes.
  • Reagan's 525 electoral votes (out of 538) is the highest total ever received by a presidential candidate.
  • No candidate since then has managed to equal or surpass Reagan's 1984 electoral result.
  • Reagan was re-elected in the November 6 election in an electoral and popular vote landslide.
  • 1984 presidential electoral votes by state.

• The Disputed Election of 2000

  • Bush narrowly won the November 7 election with 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266 (with one elector abstaining in the official tally).
  • Though Gore came in second in the electoral vote, he received 543,895 more popular votes than Bush.
  • As the final national results were tallied the following morning, Bush had clearly won a total of 246 electoral votes, while Gore had won 255 votes. 270 votes were needed to win.
  • Florida's 25 electoral votes became the key to an election win for either candidate.
  • Most of the post-electoral controversy revolved around Gore's request for hand recounts in four counties, as provided under Florida state law.