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1916 United States presidential election in Washington (state)

Main article: 1916 United States presidential election

The 1916 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 2, 1920, as part of the 1916 United States presidential election in which all contemporary 48 states participated. Voters chose seven electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting Democratic incumbents Woodrow Wilson Thomas R. Marshall, against Republican challengers Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes and his running mate, former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks.

1916 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
← 1912 November 7, 1916 1920 →
 
Nominee Woodrow Wilson Charles Evans Hughes Allan L. Benson
Party Democratic Republican Socialist
Home state New Jersey New York New York
Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Charles W. Fairbanks George Ross Kirkpatrick
Electoral vote 7 0 0
Popular vote 183,388 167,208 22,800
Percentage 48.13% 43.89% 5.98%
County Results
President before election

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Elected President

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic

Washington had been a one-party Republican bastion for twenty years before this election.[1] Democratic representation in the Washington legislature would during this period at times be countable on one hand,[2] and neither Alton B. Parker nor William Jennings Bryan in his third presidential run carried even one county in the state. Republican primaries had taken over as the chief mode of political competition when introduced in the late 1900s.[3]

However, a powerful "peace vote" in the Western states[4] due to opposition to participation in World War I, and the transfer of a considerable part of the substantial vote for Eugene Debs from the previous election to Wilson owing to such Progressive reforms as the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments[5] allowed Woodrow Wilson to carry Washington by a 4.25 percentage point margin. In doing this, Wilson was the first ever Democratic victor in the Western Washington Puget Sound counties of Island, San Juan and Kitsap,[6] and the only Democrat between 1904 and 1924 to carry any Washington county in a two-way presidential race.

After the votes were counted, there was some debate over who should be the seventh elector from the state. One of the original electors on the Democratic ticket, A. T. Steam, died prior to election day. The state's Democratic party replaced him with Edwin M. Connor, but Stream's name was not replaced on the ballot in ten of Washington's 39 counties.[7][8] Since voters chose electors directly at the time, this resulted in a split of the vote between Connor and Steam and a Republican elector, Warren H. Lewis, received the seventh-most votes and therefore would be entitled to the final elector position and subsequently cast a vote for Charles Evans Hughes. Many believed, however, that given the voters' clear intent to elect Wilson and Washington's potential split not affecting the final outcome, Lewis should either cast his electoral vote for the Wilson ticket or step aside and allow Connor to be appointed the seventh elector. After consulting with the state's Republican committee, Lewis declined to contest Connor's appointment as elector.[9][10] As such, all seven of Washington's electoral votes were cast for Wilson and Marshall.

Results

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General Election Results[7][8]
Party Pledged to Elector Votes
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson D. M. Drumheller 183,388
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson C. C. Brown 183,242
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson George F. Christensen 183,230
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson Francis Donahoe 183,028
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson Joseph A. Sloan 182,813
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson G. W. Hoxie 182,806
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes Warren H. Lewis[a] 167,208
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes J. Henry Smith 166,406
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes George E. Finley 166,375
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes Luther Weedin 166,340
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes E. E. Beard 166,298
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes Richard M. Buttle 166,143
Republican Party Charles Evans Hughes J. A. Perkins 165,971
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson Edwin M. Connor[b][c] 134,481
Democratic Party Woodrow Wilson A. T. Stream[d] 47,977
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Marie Nielsen 22,800
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Allen Brooks 22,518
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Laura M. House 22,515
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Helen Camp 22,510
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Kate Sutton 22,490
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Bertha Zietz 22,486
Socialist Party Allan L. Benson Bonner Bartlett 22,482
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly Salome R. Lippy 6,868
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly Walter F. McDowell 6,840
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly John Anderson 6,838
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly R. M. Shoemake 6,819
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly L. Stanton 6,814
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly E. B. Crary 6,812
Prohibition Party Frank Hanly C. C. Gridley 6,790
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer Gotfried Gustafson 730
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer Jerry E. Sullivan 711
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer Andrew P. Anderson 701
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer John C. Schafer 701
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer Arne Hage 699
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer Leslie H. Sawyer 697
Socialist Labor Party Arthur E. Reimer Fred Kurtzman 690
Votes cast[e] 380,994

Results by county

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County Woodrow Wilson
Democratic 		Charles Evans Hughes
Republican 		Allan L. Benson
Socialist 		Frank Hanly
Prohibition 		Arthur E. Reimer
Socialist Labor 		Margin Total votes cast[f]
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Adams 1,294 48.41% 1,237 46.28% 112 4.19% 21 0.79% 9 0.34% 57 2.13% 2,673
Asotin 1,136 48.59% 1,004 42.94% 117 5.00% 80 3.42% 1 0.04% 132 5.65% 2,338
Benton 1,351 42.03% 1,460 45.43% 342 10.64% 53 1.65% 8 0.25% -109 -3.39% 3,214
Chelan 2,747 43.46% 3,011 47.63% 405 6.41% 151 2.39% 7 0.11% -264 -4.18% 6,321
Clallam 1,339 41.06% 1,475 45.23% 418 12.82% 19 0.58% 10 0.31% -136 -4.17% 3,261
Clark 3,728 41.28% 4,419 48.93% 677 7.50% 198 2.19% 10 0.11% -691 -7.65% 9,032
Columbia 1,164 47.57% 1,148 46.91% 108 4.41% 25 1.02% 2 0.08% 16 0.65% 2,447
Cowlitz 1,282 33.44% 2,113 55.11% 378 9.86% 57 1.49% 4 0.10% -831 -21.67% 3,834
Douglas 1,916 59.52% 1,125 34.95% 148 4.60% 28 0.87% 2 0.06% 791 24.57% 3,219
Ferry 913 52.99% 581 33.72% 221 12.83% 5 0.29% 3 0.17% 332 19.27% 1,723
Franklin 1,110 57.93% 671 35.02% 109 5.69% 23 1.20% 3 0.16% 439 22.91% 1,916
Garfield 728 45.02% 845 52.26% 32 1.98% 11 0.68% 1 0.06% -117 -7.24% 1,617
Grant 1,563 51.58% 1,205 39.77% 221 7.29% 38 1.25% 3 0.10% 358 11.82% 3,030
Grays Harbor 4,992 44.04% 5,024 44.32% 1,209 10.67% 96 0.85% 15 0.13% -32 -0.28% 11,336
Island 855 46.34% 804 43.58% 170 9.21% 16 0.87% 0 0.00% 51 2.76% 1,845
Jefferson 861 40.77% 1,094 51.80% 134 6.34% 22 1.04% 1 0.05% -233 -11.03% 2,112
King 52,362 54.71% 38,959 40.71% 3,193 3.34% 922 0.96% 272 0.28% 13,403 14.00% 95,708
Kitsap 3,479 49.89% 2,638 37.83% 751 10.77% 94 1.35% 12 0.17% 841 12.06% 6,974
Kittitas 2,609 49.40% 2,310 43.74% 262 4.96% 93 1.76% 7 0.13% 299 5.66% 5,281
Klickitat 1,478 45.35% 1,570 48.17% 186 5.71% 23 0.71% 2 0.06% -92 -2.82% 3,259
Lewis 4,318 40.73% 5,186 48.92% 845 7.97% 239 2.25% 13 0.12% -868 -8.19% 10,601
Lincoln 2,827 51.67% 2,356 43.06% 221 4.04% 62 1.13% 5 0.09% 471 8.61% 5,471
Mason 779 45.19% 764 44.32% 162 9.40% 16 0.93% 3 0.17% 15 0.87% 1,724
Okanogan 2,924 54.82% 1,896 35.55% 474 8.89% 33 0.62% 7 0.13% 1,028 19.27% 5,334
Pacific 1,537 34.02% 2,688 59.50% 257 5.69% 30 0.66% 6 0.13% -1,151 -25.48% 4,518
Pend Oreille 1,080 50.94% 916 43.21% 111 5.24% 9 0.42% 4 0.19% 164 7.74% 2,120
Pierce 18,940 48.85% 16,780 43.28% 1,894 4.89% 1,059 2.73% 97 0.25% 2,160 5.57% 38,770
San Juan 669 47.96% 591 42.37% 122 8.75% 13 0.93% 0 0.00% 78 5.59% 1,395
Skagit 4,936 47.88% 4,142 40.17% 951 9.22% 256 2.48% 25 0.24% 794 7.70% 10,310
Skamania 451 46.07% 489 49.95% 34 3.47% 5 0.51% 0 0.00% -38 -3.88% 979
Snohomish 8,390 41.52% 8,625 42.68% 2,543 12.58% 606 3.00% 43 0.21% -235 -1.16% 20,207
Spokane 21,339 49.49% 19,503 45.23% 1,321 3.06% 877 2.03% 80 0.19% 1,836 4.26% 43,120
Stevens 3,184 47.84% 2,684 40.32% 678 10.19% 104 1.56% 6 0.09% 500 7.51% 6,656
Thurston 2,658 39.39% 3,223 47.76% 624 9.25% 231 3.42% 12 0.18% -565 -8.37% 6,748
Wahkiakum 340 36.13% 490 52.07% 103 10.95% 7 0.74% 1 0.11% -150 -15.94% 941
Walla Walla 4,456 48.29% 4,429 48.00% 218 2.36% 120 1.30% 4 0.04% 27 0.29% 9,227
Whatcom 5,629 35.53% 7,632 48.18% 2,075 13.10% 465 2.94% 41 0.26% -2,003 -12.64% 15,842
Whitman 5,888 52.33% 4,933 43.84% 239 2.12% 186 1.65% 5 0.04% 955 8.49% 11,251
Yakima 6,136 41.91% 7,188 49.10% 735 5.02% 575 3.93% 6 0.04% -1,052 -7.19% 14,640
Totals 183,388 48.13% 167,208 43.89% 22,800 5.98% 6,868 1.80% 730 0.19% 16,180 4.25% 380,994

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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Counties that flipped from Progressive to Democratic

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Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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Counties that flipped from Progressive to Republican

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ As he received the 7th most votes, Lewis was entitled to be elected, but declined to contest Connor's appointment as the seventh Democratic elector
  2. ^ Replaced A. T. Stream on most Democratic ballots
  3. ^ Although Connor ran behind the Republican ticket, the top Republican elector, who was otherwise entitled to be elected, declined to contest Connor's appointment as the seventh Democratic elector
  4. ^ Died prior to Election Day and was replaced by Edwin M. Connor on most but not all ballots
  5. ^ Based on totals for highest elector on each ticket
  6. ^ Based on highest elector on each ticket

References

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  1. ^ Burnham, Walter Dean; ‘The System of 1896’, in Kleppner, Paul (editor), The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 176-179 ISBN 0313213798
  2. ^ Schattschneider, Elmer Eric; The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America, pp. 76-84 ISBN 0030133661
  3. ^ Murray, Keith; ‘Issues and Personalities of Pacific Northwest Politics, 1889-1950’, The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 3 (July 1950), pp. 213-233
  4. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 47 ISBN 0786422173
  5. ^ Sarasohn, David; 'The Election of 1916: Realigning the Rockies', Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 3 (July 1980), pp. 285-305
  6. ^ Menendez, The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 332
  7. ^ a b Washington Secretary of State. Abstract of Votes Polled in the State of Washington at the General Election Held November 7, 1916. Olympia, Washington. pp. 6–10.
  8. ^ a b Washington Secretary of State. Second Biennial Report Election Division. Olympia, Washington. pp. 84–88. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  9. ^ "Interesting Happenings in Pacific Northwest". Washington Digital Newspapers. The Leavenworth Echo. January 12, 1917. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  10. ^ "To The Spotlight, Mr. Connor!". Washington Digital Newspapers. Washington Standard. January 5, 1917. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
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