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The American Political Almanac
RECONSTRUCTION & THE GILDED AGETHE SYSTEM OF 1896THE NEW DEAL ORDERTHE LONG REALIGNMENTPOLARIZED ERA1868RRRRD1888RDRRR1908RDDRR1928RDDDD1948DRRDD1968RRDRR1988RDDRR2008DDRD2024R

The Nation Decides

Electoral votes, the popular vote, and how every state moved
Grover Cleveland
Democrat
Grover Cleveland
168
Electoral votes
48.6% · 5,560,675
President · Reconstruction & the Gilded Age

1888

Harrison def. Cleveland, 233–168
won the presidency, lost the popular votevote totals summed from county returns
✓ Won
Benjamin Harrison
Republican
Benjamin Harrison
233
Electoral votes
47.8% · 5,463,924
Electoral college — 201 to win (401 electors)168 D · 233 R
Popular vote48.6% · 47.8% · other 3.6% · margin D+0.8

11,395,907 votes counted (summed from counties) · Excludes third-party votes in 1 county whose source totals are double-counted.

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.

Missouri: the source double-counts some county totals this year, so third-party vote there is understated (shown with a +).

The swing from last time
Change in each state’s margin since 1884 · ← 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 1888 electorate.

Notes on this election

  • Harrison won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote.