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Diogenes’ Brief History of Electoral College Presidential Contest

Home - by - October 17, 2012 - 22:30 America/New_York - 12 Comments

Diogenes’ Middle Finger

These are the Electoral College Presidential Election maps going back to 1972, all from the American Presidency Project. Hitting the link above each map will take you to a detailed analysis of each election, a tally of the Electoral College votes allocated to each state at the time, plus a state-by-state vote total and other trivia.

1972 In the early 1970s, the left wing (i.e.Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, George McGovern) had gained control of the Democrat party, but America wasn’t buying it back in those days. Sitting President Richard Nixon was reelected with 520 Electoral votes (60% popular vote) with George McGovern only taking 17 (Massachusetts). Origins of the phrase “Epic Fail”.

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» 12 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    October 17th, 2012

    Very interesting. I show 352 for R/R.

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  2. iamthegps

    October 17th, 2012

    Well, they say history repeats itself… At least here’s hoping.

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  3. Boobie the Rocket Dog

    October 17th, 2012

    Reagan came close to that in round two, too.

    Three times a charm…

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  4. AbigailAdams

    October 17th, 2012

    My map came to 386 Romney.

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  5. FreeMan & Sarah Voting Early & Often

    October 17th, 2012

    I know this would be a dream come true, but I would like to see ZerO carry zero states. That would be a very clear message to the MSM and the Demonrats to STFU!

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  6. keep the piece

    October 18th, 2012

    same here, FM, would like to see all 57/8 states, but, that’s a fine lookin map right chare

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  7. old_oaks

    October 18th, 2012

    This is WHY I have a bumper sticker on my Jeep that reads…

    [b]“RepibliCAN Do in ’72[/b]

    I chose it for the Electoral College results where the country was FAR LESS DIVIDED THAN IT IS TODAY.

    I have 2 more bumper stickers that I might add in the next few days.

    [b]“NIXON/AGNEW”[/b]

    &

    [b]Have A Nice NATION… NIXON in ’72[/b] with a big orange smiley face.

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  8. old_oaks

    October 18th, 2012

    Fixing my tags…

    This is WHY I have a bumper sticker on my Jeep that reads…

    “RepibliCAN Do in ’72

    I chose it for the Electoral College results where the country was FAR LESS DIVIDED THAN IT IS TODAY.

    I have 2 more bumper stickers that I might add in the next few days.

    “NIXON/AGNEW”

    &

    Have A Nice NATION… NIXON in ’72 with a big orange smiley face.

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  9. AbigailAdams

    October 18th, 2012

    @old oaks — haha! Unfortunately a lot of the obama voters wouldn’t know what the bumper stickers mean, given that the 70′s were sometime just after the precolumbian era. Like, ya know?

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  10. Stranded in Sonoma

    October 18th, 2012

    Great site for all of the election information.

    But I have a problem with the 1960 election numbers. They always show Kennedy winning both the popular and electoral votes. That wasn’t the case. Nixon won the popular vote, Kennedy got the electors. And if you look at the map, you’ll see that too. Harry Byrd (the father of the KKK member Robert Byrd) got 15 electoral votes but no popular votes! That is possible, but highly unlikely. The following is from an OpinionJournal column from 2003:

    Kennedy’s edge in the nationwide popular vote was the equivalent of less than one vote per precinct. The Associated Press reported that Kennedy’s plurality was just 112,827 votes nationwide, a margin of 49.7% to 49.5%.

    It’s uncertain because in Alabama, JFK’s name didn’t actually appear on the ballot. Voters were asked to choose between Nixon and a slate of “unpledged Democrat electors.” A statewide primary had chosen five Democratic electors who were “loyalists” pledged to JFK six who were free to vote for anyone.

    The Democratic slate defeated Nixon, 324,050 votes to 237,981. In the end, the six unpledged electors voted for Sen. Harry Byrd of Virginia, a leading Dixiecrat, and the other five stuck with their pledge to Kennedy.

    Reporter Neil Pierce took the highest vote cast for any of the 11 Democratic electors in Alabama — 324,050 — and divided it proportionately between Kennedy and the unpledged electors who ended up voting for Harry Byrd.

    Using that method, Kennedy was given credit for 5/11ths of the Democratic total, or 147,295 votes. Nixon’s total in Alabama of 237,981 remained the same. The remaining 176,755 votes were counted as being for the unpledged electors.

    With these new totals for Alabama factored in with the vote counts for the other 49 states, Nixon has a 58,181-vote plurality, edging out Kennedy 34,108,157 votes to 34,049,976. Using that calculation the 1960 election was even closer than we thought.

    I just wish that sites like this would get the vote count right. Kennedy was NOT a popular president by any stretch of the imagination. Like FDR before him, he just had a great PR machine to sell his presidency after he died.

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  11. Dren

    October 18th, 2012

    What a bunch of Massholes.

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  12. Death_By_Farts

    October 18th, 2012

    Obama will easily carry California, Washington, and Oregon on the west coast.

    In the Midwest, he’ll probably carry Nevada (thanks to the Unions and Clark County), New Mexico, and Minnesota, although it’s said by some pollsters that Minnesota is now within reach for Romney.
    I’m not holding my breath though, because it hasn’t gone red since 1972, and even Carter and Modale carried it. And any state that would actually elected a horses-ass like Al Franken is too far gone anyway.
    Finally, Obama will win Illinois of course, but I’ll will die laughing if it goes red this time. (IL is always the first state to light up on the map on election night).

    The sheep in the northeast will not let Obama down either. He’ll easily carry New York, Maryland, DC, Delaware, Conneticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Massachustas. Maine, New Hampshire, and even Jersey might very well go red this time.
    I predict Obama will lose states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin that he assumes are safe-blue.

    Obama’s end result…..EPIC FAIL

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