The Election of the Year...

It's Election Day here in America. I hope you got out and voted. Many are calling this a "historic" election and anticipating record voter turnout. While every election has equal potential to be historic in retrospect, to call one so before it's even occurred is quite a moniker. Lets hope it lives up to our expectations, what ever they may be.

Just for the sake of entertainment, here's some election trivia and useless knowledge:

The 2000 Presidential Election between Al Gore and George W. Bush was not the first time that a president has been elected without the majority of the popular vote. It has happened 3 other times: in 1824, 1876 and 1888.


Although we think that election chaos is a new thing, but we'd be quite wrong. The 1824 election mentioned above was actually fought out between 4 candidates from essentially the same party. The Federalist Party had folded during the previous presidency, leaving only the Democratic-Republican party intact. Factions split on issues and geographic lines resulting in 4 candidates, the two strongest of which were John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson (their respective factions eventually formed into the National Republican Party and the Democratic Party). No candidate received a numeric majority of either the electoral college or popular votes, though Jackson did collect more of both types of votes than any other candidate. According to the 12th Amendment, the vote then goes to the House of Representatives. Unluckily for Jackson, he had powerful enemies in the house and the election was given to Adams. Jackson cried foul for four years until he was able to run against Adams again, this time with no other contenders to split the vote. Jackson won the 1828 election by a landslide. (It's also interesting to note that only +352,000 votes were cast nationally in that election - boy things change!)

My man Andy. I think this is a really cool look for the President.

In the 1876 election, the loser, Samuel Tilden (Dem), actually received a majority of both the popular and electoral votes as initially counted. This was in Reconstruction era America, and is still held to be the most hotly contested election in American history. The disputed results were mainly in the South - South Carolina, Louisiana and (big surprise) Florida. There were reports of violence against voters and corruption at the polling place. The result of the election is generally called the Compromise of 1877 - essentially the Republicans agreed to withdraw Federal troops from the South in return for their acquiescence and the election of Ruthaford B. Hayes as President. This was effectively the end of Reconstruction and begun a pattern of systematic prevention of black voting in the South through poll taxes and grandfather clauses.

And we think nasty campaign ads are new...

Since 1960, voter turn out has dropped from only 60% to a low of 49% in 1994. That number has climbed back up to the mid-50's in the 21st century elections. I find this statistic to be depressing.

Richard Nixon has received more votes than any other person in American history. His three Congressional terms, two terms as Vice-President, his narrow defeat by JFK in the 1960 presidential, his run for the California Gubernatorial, his first election to the Presidency in 1968 and his landslide defeat of Geroge McGovern (the largest in Presidential history until that time) makes Nixon the most voted for American politician ever.

Good ol' Ricky celebrating

Most Americans consider the British Prime Minister to be the equivalent to the our President - however, the British Constitution is largely uncodified, or de facto. There are few official references to the post - none which predate the 20th century. Parliament has decided many times that the position simply does not exist. The politician in the post generally holds onto power by controlling his or her respective party in Parliament and by holding sway in the Cabinet.