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The American Political Almanac
RECONSTRUCTION & THE GILDED AGETHE SYSTEM OF 1896THE NEW DEAL ORDERTHE LONG REALIGNMENTPOLARIZED ERA1868RRRRD1888RDR1900RRRDDRR1928RDDDD1948DRRDD1968RRDRR1988RDDRR2008DDRD2024R

The Nation Decides

Electoral votes, the popular vote, and how every state moved
William Jennings Bryan
Democrat
William Jennings Bryan
155
Electoral votes
45.5% · 6,332,836
President · The System of 1896

1900

McKinley def. Bryan, 292–155
vote totals summed from county returns
✓ Won
William McKinley
Republican
William McKinley
292
Electoral votes
51.6% · 7,263,651
Electoral college — 224 to win (447 electors)155 D · 292 R
Popular vote45.5% · 51.6% · other 2.9% · margin R+6.1

14,035,492 votes counted (summed from counties) · Excludes third-party votes in 37 counties 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, Washington: the source double-counts some county totals this year, so third-party vote there is unknown or understated (shown with a +).

The swing from last time
Change in each state’s margin since 1896 · ← 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 1900 electorate.

Notes on this election

  • The 1896 rematch, decided the same way.