Presidential Elections Since 1976

1976 Presidential Election Republican President Gerald Ford ran for president after taking over for Richard Nixon when he resigned due to the Watergate scandal Ford’s pardoning of Nixon and an economy that featured high gas prices and inflation lost the election for him Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter won the Democratic nomination and defeated Ford to become president Jimmy Carter > < Gerald Ford

1976 Electoral College Results Carter was the last Democrat to win support in southern states (where Democrats had strong support for almost 100 years)

1980 Presidential Election Due to an economy that continued to be bad, and due to the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis, Jimmy Carter lost popularity Republican candidate Ronald Reagan was California Governor and a former Hollywood actor His election began a conservative movement that allowed the Republicans to control Congress and the presidency for 12 years Reagan Carter

1980 Electoral College Results Carter lost support in the South except for his home state of Georgia and key states like New York and Pennsylvania

1984 Presidential Election President Ronald Reagan enjoyed strong popular support for his strong stances against the Soviet Union, and for the greatly improving economy The Democratic candidate was Walter Mondale, Vice President under Jimmy Carter and a former Senator from Minnesota Democratic U.S. Representative Geraldine Ferraro from N.Y. became the first female Vice Presidential candidate from one of the two major political parties

1984 Electoral College Results Mondale only won his home state of Minnesota & DC

1988 Presidential Election Popular Republican President Ronald Reagan finishes his 8 years in office Vice President George H.W. Bush runs as the Republican candidate Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis runs as the Democratic candidate A strong economy means strong support for keeping a Republican in office, thus Bush wins in a landslide Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis > President Ronald Reagan endorses George Bush as the Republican candidate \/

1988 Electoral College Results Though Dukakis lost big in the electoral college it was closer in the popular vote, and he broke through by winning two west coast states

1992 Presidential Election President George H.W. Bush’s popularity was high after the successful Desert Storm operation against Iraq, but an economic downturn prior to the election of 1992 caused him to raise some taxes (against a 1988 election promise) Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton started out as an unknown but won the Democratic nomination and then the presidency < Pres. George H.W. Bush /\ Bill Clinton and V.P. candidate Al Gore

1992 Electoral College Results Clinton broke through by winning the west coast, the Midwest, and the Northeast, and taking some of the south

1996 Presidential Election With a strong economy and no competition in the Democratic primaries, Bill Clinton was able to coast toward the election with a big lead Republican candidate, Bob Dole, a Senator from Kansas came across as too old and out of touch to lead while running against the still youthful Clinton Bill Clinton >< Bob Dole

1996 Electoral College Results Same strongholds as previous elections prevail

2000 Presidential Election With Clinton leaving office after 8 years both parties nominated new candidates Republicans nominated Texas Governor George W. Bush (son of President George H.W. Bush) Democrats nominated former Senator and current Vice-President Al Gore from Tennessee Monica Lewinski and President Clinton scandal hurts Gore’s chances George Bush (left) shakes hands with Al Gore (right) during the campaign

2000 Election Results During the election TV coverage Florida was first declared a win for Gore, then too close to call, then for Bush The final count ended with Bush winning Florida giving him the victory in the electoral college 271 for Bush to 266 for Gore Despite the loss in the electoral college, Gore gains more popular votes than Bush (mostly due to a huge winning margin in California) Magazine cover while election Results were being disputed

2000 Electoral College Results Gore wins the popular vote, but loses the electoral college vote when he loses key swing states Ohio and Florida

2000 Election Recount The Democrats demanded a recount of the votes in Florida after Bush won by 537 votes If the recount resulted in Gore winning, then Florida’s 25 electoral college votes would go to Gore, giving him the Presidency Lawsuits are filed ending in the Supreme Court ruling in December that the recounts should stop, thus giving Bush the Presidency < A Florida election official looks closely at a ballot to see who the vote should go to (some holes were only partly punched) < Bush at his inauguration in January

'Butterfly ballot' challenge Palm Beach County found itself at the vortex of the 2000 presidential election because of a visually challenging ballot design that turned an estimated 2,800 would-be Al Gore voters into Pat Buchanan voters. The so-called "butterfly ballot" opened the door to calls for a revote, and a public march in West Palm Beach led by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson

Over-voting The closeness of that election, and the subsequent official recounts and media re-examinations, revealed that tens of thousands of Floridians threw their votes away that day by over-voting - voting for more than one candidate in the 10-candidate field. There would be nearly 22,000 of these over-voters alone in Jacksonville's Duval County and 19,120 more in Palm Beach County. (These Florida counties traditionally were strong Democratic voting counties.) As the butterfly ballot had two pages many voters voted for one candidate on each page and didn’t realize they all were for the same office – President.

Under-voting The undervotes were a product of the existing punch card technology, which required voters to use a stylus to punch a hole in a removable ballot card. If the hole wasn't cleanly punched, those little perforated flaps of cardboard, which later became known in the recount vernacular as “hanging chads,” would cover up the hole when the voting card was fed into a tabulator. The result was a no-vote.

Voter Intent Florida law holds that "voter intent" is the guiding standard in deciding whether a ballot should be counted. Democrats used the significant number of these under- votes to create the legal justification for the individual inspection of ballots by 3-member election canvassing boards in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Absentee Ballots Questions were raised about the legal validity of absentee ballots in some counties. Absentee ballots that came in late were predominantly from those in the military, who generally vote Republican. A large number of these ballots were undated so there was no way to know if they were cast before or after the election. Harris ruled that Florida would count all of these ballots, even if they were undated.

Recount goes to the Courts Due to these potential issues with the initial counting of votes, manual recounts begin in several Florida counties Bush's legal team, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker, goes to federal court seeking to block manual recounts. Gore sends Warren Christopher, another former Secretary of State, to lead his legal team. BAKER CHRISTOPHER

Recounts Stop Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris is in charge of certifying or finalizing the result of the election in Florida. She decides not to extend a deadline for receiving all state election results despite ongoing recounts. Gore's team promises a legal challenge. A federal judge turns down the Bush team's attempt to stop manual recounts. Harris says she will not accept further hand recounts and asks the state Supreme Court to order the halt of manual recounts. Florida Sec. of State Katherine Harris

Recounts Back On Lawyers for Bush submit written arguments to the U.S. federal appeals court in Atlanta to end the recounts, which denies his request. Democrats also filed papers with the federal court to oppose the Republican bid. The Florida Supreme Court rules Palm Beach County can proceed with a manual recount of ballots. The Florida Supreme Court blocks Harris from any vote certification and rules to allow hand recounts to be counted. Florida Supreme Court

Case to US Supreme Court To the surprise of many observers, the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Bush's appeal of the Florida high court ruling allowing hand recounts. Harris certifies the results of the Florida vote after the state Supreme Court deadline expires, giving Bush a 537-vote lead over Gore. Harris does not include results from Palm Beach County, which completed its manual recount about two hours after the deadline. The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments over whether the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its authority by ordering Harris to include the manual recounts in certified state results.

Fight Continues Divided 4-3, the Florida Supreme Court orders manual recounts in all counties with significant numbers of presidential under-votes. Bush appeals the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court and seeks injunctive relief to stop the hand recounts. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, halts the manual recounts and sets a hearing on the matter two days later. U.S. Supreme Court in 2000

Supreme Court to Decide Bush's lawyers argue on December 11 before the U.S. Supreme Court in that the Florida high court again overstepped its bounds by ordering a manual recount of under-votes in Gore's election contest. Gore's lawyers argue that the U.S. Supreme Court has no reason to intervene in the state court contest. The next day the Supreme Court rules on the case.

Bush v. Gore by a vote of 7-2, the US Supreme Court held that the Florida Supreme Court's scheme for recounting ballots was unconstitutional and permanently stops by a vote of 5-4, the Court held that no alternative scheme could be established within the time limits established by Florida Legislature, thus accepting the Florida vote certified by Katherine Harris with George Bush receiving 537 more votes than Al Gore. George Bush wins the 25 Electoral College votes for Florida and wins the 2000 Presidential Election. George W. Bush 43 rd President

2004 Presidential Election George W. Bush ran for reelection for the Republicans Massachusetts Senator John Kerry ran for the Democrats < BUSH KERRY > Bush scored points for handling the 9/11 crisis well and for the War in Iraq, which allowed him to win another close election

Republican dominance of the West and South holds with some in-roads into the Midwest 2004 Electoral College Results

Distorted 2004 Electoral College Map Size of the State Determined by Electoral College Votes

2008 Presidential Election A housing market collapse in 2006 led to the recession that began at the end of 2007 The slowing economy hurt Republicans and led to a Democratic victory in Congress & White House Obama became 1 st African American President Republican Candidate Senator John McCain (Arizona) Democratic Candidate Senator Barack Obama (Illinois)

Democrats make in-roads into the Republican dominance of the West and South and expand Midwest and Northeast 2008 Electoral College Results

2012 Presidential Election

2012 Electoral College Results