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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
William Jennings Bryan
Democrat
William Jennings Bryan
162
Electoral votes
43.0% · 6,406,818
President · The System of 1896

1908

Taft def. Bryan, 321–162
vote totals summed from county returns

Also running: Eugene V. Debs (2.8%)

✓ Won
William Howard Taft
Republican
William Howard Taft
321
Electoral votes
51.6% · 7,676,257
Electoral college — 242 to win (483 electors)162 D · 321 R
Popular vote43.0% · 51.6% · other 5.4% · margin R+8.6

14,881,652 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 1904 · ← 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 1908 electorate.

Notes on this election

  • Bryan's third and final defeat.