Third Party Elections
Election Years in which a third party candidate walked away with any amount of Electoral votes




1912

Candidate: Teddy Roosevelt

T. Roosevelt

Party: Progressive

Popular Vote: 4,119,207 (27.4%)

Electoral Votes: 88

States: Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Washington, Pennsylvania, California (split)

*Roosevelt actually beat Democratic candidate William Howard Taft in the Electoral College;
Taft received only 8 votes

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1924

Candidate: Robert Marion LaFollette

Bob Lafollette

Party: Progressive

Popular Vote: 4,822,856 (16.6%)

Electoral Votes: 13

States: Wisconsin

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1948

Candidate: Strom Thurmond

Strom Thurmond

Party: Dixiecrat

Popular Vote: 1,176,125 (2.4%)

Electoral Votes: 39

          States: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee (split)

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1960

Candidate: Harry Flood Byrd

Byrd


Party: Democrat

Popular Vote: 116,248 (0.2%)

Electoral Votes: 15

States: Mississippi, Alabama (split), Oklahoma (split)

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1968

Candidate: George Corley Wallace

Wallace


Party: American Independent

Popular Vote: 9,446,167 (12.9%)

Electoral Votes: 46

       States: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina (split)

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1956, 1972, 1976, 1988

*In each of these elections, a candidate got a single (1) electoral vote:

Walter Burgwyn Jones in 1956

John Hospers in 1972

Ronald Reagan in 1976

Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. in 1988


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Controversial Elections


Electoral College Table of Contents


 
July 13th 2009
Albatross of U.S. democracy
Indianapolis Star

FairVote research is cited in support of the National Popular Vote plan in Indiana, because "every vote cast for president should be equally important and equally coveted, whether it originates in California, Connecticut or Crawfordsville."

July 9th 2009
Winner-take-all can elect a second-place president
San Diego Union-Tribune

The founder of National Popular Vote lays out the shortcomings and injustices of the Electoral College system, and shows why the National Popular Vote plan is the right solution.

May 17th 2009
Why states should adopt the National Popular Vote plan for president
San Diego Union-Tribune

FairVote's Rob Richie writes that the Electoral College deepens political inequality, and explains why the National Popular Vote plan is our best opportunity to ensure that every vote for president is equally valued.

May 14th 2009
Let's Make Every Vote Count
The Nation

Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of the Nation magazine, highlights FairVote's research in an important piece on the "broad support" growing in the states for the National Popular Vote plan to elect the president.

May 13th 2009
Representative Democracy: Two Steps Forward
The Daily Herald

The executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute heralds the passage of the National Popular Vote bill in Washington state.

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