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The American Political Almanac
RECONSTRUCTION & THE GILDED AGETHE SYSTEM OF 1896THE NEW DEAL ORDERTHE LONG REALIGNMENTPOLARIZED ERA1868RRRR1884DRDRRR1908RDDRR1928RDDDD1948DRRDD1968RRDRR1988RDDRR2008DDRD2024R

The Nation Decides

Electoral votes, the popular vote, and how every state moved
✓ Won
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
Grover Cleveland
219
Electoral votes
48.9% · 4,893,445
President · Reconstruction & the Gilded Age

1884

Cleveland def. Blaine, 219–182
vote totals summed from county returns
James G. Blaine
Republican
James G. Blaine
182
Electoral votes
48.3% · 4,861,122
Electoral college — 201 to win (401 electors)219 D · 182 R
Popular vote48.9% · 48.3% · other 2.8% · margin D+0.6

10,070,798 votes counted (summed from counties)

Electoral map — one tile per state · coloured by county-summed popular vote
R+40D+40third party won

Per-state electoral vote detail is staged from 1976; earlier years show the national college in the bar above, and states are coloured by their county-summed popular vote.

The swing from last time
Change in each state’s margin since 1880 · ← toward Republicans · toward Democrats →

The Map Beneath the Map

Three thousand counties, and the demography of the divide

Every county that cast a ballot, shaded by its margin. Hover any county to read it; click to open its 156-year profile. Scrub the timeline above and the map redraws in place. Vote counts exist for all forty elections; the demographic lenses begin in 2000.

County margin

Drawing three thousand counties…

R+40D+40no returns

Who voted for whom? The survey record begins with the 1948 ANES — there is no comparable individual-level account of the 1884 electorate.

Notes on this election

  • First Democratic presidential win since 1856.