[EL] State-by-state popular vote statistics for presidential elections from 1796 (or as early as possible) through 2016

[Rob Richie]

I'll note that quite a few states did not allocate electoral votes
according to a statewide popular vote until Andrew Jackson’s presidency
(and not every state held a presidential election until 1872, with another
blip in 1876 before all states holding elections starting in 1880, albeit
without suffrage rights for a majority of adult adjust until 1920).
FairVote a few years ago did a piece on how use of the winner take all rule
and use of statewide popular votes here:

https://www.fairvote.org/how-the-electoral-college-became-winner-take-all

James Madison proposed banning the winner take all rule just as it was
becoming the norm, notably. See.

https://www.fairvote.org/why-james-madison-wanted-to-change-the-way-we-vote-for-president


When people quote Alexander Hamiton on the "most excellent" Electoral
College or tell modern reformers "so you think you're smarter than the
framers," they may not realize that the framers and the opening generation
of American political leaders did not make use of the Electoral College
anything like we do today. But they also weren't timid about change.
Perhaps it was their revolutionary spirit, perhaps it was that most had
been part of a living debate about the roots of government structures and
systems, but they were quick to change presidential selection rules and
practices that weren't working - both by statute at the state level and
with constitutional change like the 12th amendment, that was a major
departure from the first Electoral College system.

Ironically, we then got saddled with the winner take all rule by popular
vote in states - not because it was a fair or effective national system of
picking the president, but because it was in the self-interest of any
particular state trying to maximize the advantages of its majority. And
today we have a defenders of tradition less ready to take action for
necessary changes. Or at least that's how I see it!

Rob


On Thu, Jul 18, 2019 at 5:53 AM Charles H Stewart <cstewart at mit.edu> wrote:

> Try _Presidential elections, 1789–2008,_ Washington, CQ Press, 2010,
> starting at p. 190.
>
>
> Charles Stewart III
> MIT
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Jul 18, 2019, at 4:25 AM, Mark Scarberry <mark.scarberry at pepperdine.edu>
> wrote:
>
> I am trying to find information about the popular vote in presidential
> elections by state from 1796 (or as early as possible) through 2016. I
> realize that, early on, some states' legislatures picked the electors, so
> that in some cases there would be no state popular vote data.
>
> Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections,
> https://uselectionatlas.org/, has such data going back to the 1824
> election. Does anyone know whether his data is reliable?
>
> Mark
>
> Prof. Mark S. Scarberry
> Pepperdine Univ. School of Law
>
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