Random Election Things

This election could get crazy.  It's already predicted to be a close race, close enough that things such as the weather or whose name comes first could sway the vote.  A lot of people may remember the 2000 election, where Bush won only after some shenanigans in Florida, but they may not know about all the crazy, random outcomes of elections throughout US history.  And I don't mean random like when Ford had no knowledge of foreign policy, I'm talking about things like...

James Madison runs unopposed, doesn't get every vote

In the 1820 election, the Democratic-Republican party was the only real party left.  The Federalists had collapsed because of their opposition to the War of 1812, even while we were winning.  This meant that only one (major) candidate was running for the first time since 1792, when Washington ran for his second term.

So when the electoral college has only one person to seriously consider, there's only one person who's going to get any votes, right?  Nope.  Apparently, George Washington is an imposing historical figure.  He was elected by unanimous vote in both his terms, and one elector decided that Madison was no Washington.  So in 1820, a single Delaware elector cast a vote for John Quincy Adams, who wasn't even running, just so Madison wouldn't get the unanimous vote.


We should probably thank that one Delaware elector, because Madison's second term is considered one of the most corrupt in history.  Nice job, Delaware!

Andrew Jackson wins the popular vote and elector college, loses the election

If 1820 was marked by order due to a single-party control, the 1824 election is marked by total anarchy.  So just four years after only one serious candidate ran for office, we now had four serious contenders.  Of the four, Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams were the two favorites, and that's how it played out on election day.  Jackson beat Adams by 15 electoral votes and 10% of the popular vote, but fell 31 votes short of an electoral majority.  Since no candidate won a majority, by the Constitution, the election then went to the House of Representatives.  Only the top three finishers were allowed on the ballot for that vote (which excluded Henry Clay, who came in fourth), and before it could be held William Crawford suffered a stroke, leaving him in no condition to be president.  So it was now down to just Adams and Jackson.

In the House, something crazy happened.  For some reason, a full quarter of the representatives still voted for Crawford.  And despite being the top candidate in both the electoral college and popular vote, Jackson only received 33% of the electoral college vote.  For everyone keeping score at home, that means that Adams received 41% of the vote.  So it was still a deadlock.

Wait, the individual votes aren't what count?  Each delegation only really gets one vote?  Yep.  So even though he couldn't get a majority of the House, Adams managed to squeak out a majority of the states' votes, giving him the presidency.

Naturally, Jackson was pissed, and came back with a vengeance next election, making John Adams and John Quincy Adams both one-term presidents.


Hayes gets negotiated into the Oval Office

The 1876 election should have its picture in the dictionary next to the word "shenanigans."  After most of the votes had been counted, Samuel Tilden was leading Hayes in electoral votes 184-165, with only 20 disputed votes left uncounted.  If Tilden got a single one of those disputed votes, he would be the president.  Everyone momentarily freaked out, but when order was restored a special congressional commission was assigned to decide who would recieve those votes.

Assuming probability holds true even in Congress, at least one of those ballots should have gone to Tilden.  What happened instead is now referred to as the "Compromise of 1877."  The Democrats agreed to give Hayes every disputed vote, under the condition that Hayes ended Reconstruction.  So we have Rutherford B. Hayes to thank for much of the segregation in the south for the next century.  Not bad for the least guessed president on Sporcle.