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The American Political Almanac
RECONSTRUCTION & THE GILDED AGETHE SYSTEM OF 1896THE NEW DEAL ORDERTHE LONG REALIGNMENTPOLARIZED ERA1868RRRRD1888RDRRRRD1916DRR1928RDDDD1948DRRDD1968RRDRR1988RDDRR2008DDRD2024R

The Nation Decides

Electoral votes, the popular vote, and how every state moved
✓ Won
Woodrow Wilson
Democrat
Woodrow Wilson
277
Electoral votes
49.2% · 9,184,824
President · The System of 1896

1916

Wilson def. Hughes, 277–254
vote totals summed from county returns

Also running: Allan L. Benson (3.2%)

Charles Evans Hughes
Republican
Charles Evans Hughes
254
Electoral votes
46.1% · 8,583,223
Electoral college — 266 to win (531 electors)277 D · 254 R
Popular vote49.2% · 46.1% · other 4.7% · margin D+3.1

18,639,342 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
MEVTNHWAIDMTNDMNWIMINYMARIORNVWYSDIAILINOHPANJCTCAUTCONEMOKYWVVAMDDEAZNMKSARTNNCSCOKLAMSALGATXFL
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 1912 · ← 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 1916 electorate.

Notes on this election

  • 'He kept us out of war.' California's 13 EV decided it by ~3,800 votes.