Presidents who were elected with less than 50% of the popular vote (in the 1800's)

John Quincy Adams

The "election" of President John Q. Adams in 1824 is one of the most interesting elections in presidential history.

Besides not receiving the majority of the popular vote (he only got 30.9%) he also he didn't get the majority of the electoral votes either. In fact Andrew Jackson technically won the election, but because he didn't win the majority of the electoral votes either, the decision on who would become the was thrown to the House of Representatives, who ultimately voted for John Q. Adams.

This election was also the last one in which the Democratic-Republicans participated in due to infighting and the eventual splitting up of the party into the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party over the results.

James K. Polk

Despite beating Henry Clay with a clear majority of the electoral vote in the presidential election of 1844, James K. Polk actually only won 49.5% of the popular vote (Clay won 48.1%). The reason for this is because a third presidential candidate, a James G. Birney of the Liberty Party, won 2.3% of the popular vote, and might have cost Clay the presidency, because the Liberty Party was an abolitionist party, and the political party that Clay was running for president under, the Whig party, opposed the expansion of slavery (although not outlawing it).

Zachary Taylor

In 1848 Zachary Taylor became the second person of the Whig party to be elected President of the United States. He also did it after only wining 47.3% of the popular vote. Probably the only reason why he didn't actually get the majority of the popular vote was because of former president Martin Van Buren, who ran for president again under the Free Soil Party ticket (an anti-slavery expansion party).

James Buchanan

The election of 1856 was the first election in which the Republican party ran a candidate for president (that being John C. Fremont). Of course, Fremont did not win the election, James Buchanan did, but he only won 45.3% of the popular vote. The reason why neither candidate won the majority of the of popular vote is because of former president Millard Fillmore, who ran under the Know-Nothing party in that election and won 21.6% of the popular vote (although who actually would have won if the Know-Nothing party had not ran a candidate for president is unknown).

Abraham Lincoln

Despite being one of the most famous presidents in United States history, in the 1860 presidential election Abraham Lincoln only won 39.8% of the popular vote. In fact the only reason he won was because there were three other major presidential candidates running for president (including two Democrats).

Lincoln was also greatly hated in the south. He wasn't even on the ballot throughout most of the south, and his election was the tipping point for the start of the Civil War.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Not only did Rutherford B. Hayes win the presidential election of 1876 with only 47.9% of the popular vote, he's actually the only person to win a presidential election when someone else (Samuel J. Tilden) actually won the majority of the popular vote (that being 50.9%).

James A. Garfield

James A. Garfield barely beat Winfield S. Hancock in the presidential election of 1880, and he barely got more of the popular vote than Scott did. In fact Garfield only got 48.3% of the popular vote, while Hancock got 48.2% of the popular vote.

In fact it's even possible that Hancock may have lost due to James B. Weaver of the Greenback Party (who won 2.3% of the popular vote) winning votes that probably would have gone to Hancock.

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland has had a very interesting presidential election history. Not only is he the only person to hold two non-consecutive terms as president, he also didn't win the majority of the popular vote in either of the elections he won (48.9% in 1884, and 46% in 1892)

Benjamin Harrison

In the presidential election of 1888 Benjamin Harrison, while he might have defeated President Grover Cleveland in the electoral college (and the election itself) he didn't win the popular vote. In fact he only won 47.8% of the popular vote, while Cleveland won 48.6%.

Who really was the first President?

If you were to ask a bunch of people who was the first President of the United States most of them would probably tell you that George Washington was the first President.

Those people would be wrong.

While it is true that George Washington was the first person to hold the title of "President of the United States of America" there were actually multiple people who were President of the United States before him, they just didn't hold the actual title of "President of the United States of America".

In fact the first Presidents of the United States actually held the title of "President of the Continental Congress" and they were not chosen by the people, but by the Continental Congress (which was the legislative body of the United States before the constitution basically dissolved the Continental Congress and split it into two with the creation the Senate and the House of Representatives) and in reality was closer to what we would consider to be the modern day Speaker of the House than President of the United States, and was more of an honorable title that held little authority. Still, the President of the Continental Congress was the Head of State for the United States, and therefore the Presidents of the Continental Congress were in fact the first Presidents of the United States.

Now Peyton Randolph was the first President of the Continental Congress, but he is not the first President of the United States, and for two very good reasons: One, he was president before the United States declared independence, and two, he actually died before the United States declared independence from Great Britain.

Now John Hanson first President of the Continental Congress to be elected under the Articles of Confederation, but Samuel Huntington was the President of the Continental Congress when the Articles of Confederation was ratified, and therefore many people consider him to be the first President of the United States.

Now of course Elias Boudinot could also be considered the first President of the United States because he was President of the Continental Congress when Great Britain officially recognized our independence on September 3, 1783, and he signed the Treaty of Paris, but the United States government doesn't recognize that date to be the date this country's independence. Instead the government officially considers July 4, 1776, the day the Continental Congress adopted and signed the Declaration of Independence, as the date of this country's independence.

So who was really the true first President of the United States?

It was John Hancock.

The Continental Congress, and the title of President of the Continental Congress was created before the Revolutionary War even began, and when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed, John Hancock was President of the Continental Congress (and of course one of the document's most famous signatories) and was actually President of the Continental Congress for almost 16 months after the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed. Therefore since Hancock was President of the Continental Congress during and after signing of the Declaration of Independence, he is really the first President of the United States.

Of course there are others who will say otherwise...

ECT Follow up: FEMA camps: Executive Orders

In a previous Embarrassing Conspiracy Theory post I talked about how many conspiracy theorists believe that the government is going to place citizens who object to government authority in prison camps. One of the key pieces of "evidence" for people who believe in these prison camps that are allegedly being built is that there are Executive Orders that have been made by the President which will give the government, FEMA, and the military the authority to round up citizens who object to government authority and ship them off to these alleged prison camps. Often times they also claim that government will create a disaster that will kill millions of people in order to justify the execution of these Executive Orders.

While conspiracy theorists often times cite real Executive Orders as evidence for what they believe is the planned coming of Martial Law, many of the conclusions they come to about these Executive Orders are very deceptive and quite frankly, incorrect.

First, many of the Executive Orders are often claimed to have been made by either President George W. Bush, or President Barack Obama. In perhaps most of these cases this is incorrect, and is either the result of poor or non research, or even an outright lie.

If you do the research you will find that the Executive Orders that are often cited by conspiracy theorists were not made by either President Bush or Obama, but were actually made by either President John Kennedy, of President Lyndon Johnson. In fact most of the Executive Orders that are commonly cited were made during the Cold War when the threat of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union was very real.

Also, most of the Executive Orders that are cited makes no mention of things like "prison camps" or "Martial law" or anything even of the like. The only things mentioned in these cited Executive Orders that would come even come remotely close is that they mention the need to maintain law and order during a disaster.

In fact many of these Executive Orders are for disaster preparedness (either as a result of a massive natural disaster, or a massive attack), what should be done during a disaster, who does what during a disaster, and what needs to be done in order to rebuild as quickly as possible.

In fact the only thing in these Executive Orders that may even give conspiracy theorists any warrant to believe that the government would take over everything is that the President would have the authority to take over temporarily any private industries and other resources in order to help minimize the destruction and damage to infrastructure as much as possible. Most of the time this wouldn't even be necessary due to volunteers and donations that often times that often times come about after a disaster.

Another thing that is often times not mentioned by conspiracy theorists is that while some of these Executive Orders do in fact still exist, many of them have been revoked by later presidents. In fact many were revoked during the Cold War itself, most likely because it was determined that these certain Executive Orders really were not necessary any more, or were never necessary to begin with.

In conclusion the citing of Executive Orders as "evidence" that the government is planning to enact Martial law is nothing more then conspiracy theorists typical paranoia and fear mongering.

Can a tie happen?

Many of you may know that it takes the overwhelming majority of all of the electoral votes in order to become President of the United States. While the amount these votes have varied at times in our history, ever since 1961 we have had 538 electoral votes, so currently it takes at least 270 electoral votes in order to win the presidency. Also, the electoral votes are actually cast by individuals called Electors who are suppose vote for the candidate who wins the majority of the popular votes in the state in which the electors are in (although this isn't always the case).

Now there is a problem with this.

What happens when no one wins the overwhelming majority?

Well, we already know the answer, because this has already happened before.

In the election of 1824 there were four major presidential candidates, all of whom won electoral votes.

Now, Andrew Jackson actually won the most electoral votes, but he didn't have the overwhelming majority of the electoral votes. Due to our laws the election was resolved this the United States Congress. The House of Representatives voted on who would become President (mind you they only got one vote per state, rather then one vote per Representative), and the Senate voted on who would become Vice President (in this case each Senator gets one vote).

In the end John Quincy Adams was elected by the House of Representative to become the President, while John C. Calhoun was vote in by the Senate to become the Vice President.

So back to the question at hand, is it still possible that only two candidates who win all of the electoral votes between that neither one of them still not win the election?

Yes, it is possible.

As you can clearly see the electoral votes are even, and if a candidate was to win the ten states with the highest number electoral votes plus either Virginia, or any combination of states that make up 13 electoral votes, then that candidate will have only 269 electoral vote (as will the other candidate).

Of course this combination isn't actually need, this is just the fastest one I came up with. There are probably dozens of different combinations that can cause this. Plus there is what is called a Faithless Elector who chooses to vote for the candidate other then the one that the other Electors in that state have pledged to vote for (or not vote for anyone if they choose to) and thus you end up getting a tie that way, or neither candidates having enough votes that way.

Then there is of course the possibility of a third candidate (or more) capturing enough electoral votes that it causes the two top candidates to not get enough electoral votes to win.

So in theory it is possible for two major candidates to get a tie in an election (or neither get enough electoral votes) and so what would happen is that for the second time in our history is that our Congress would choose who would become President and Vice President of the United States.

Scary thought, isn't it?

The current Electoral Map of the United States

The Ten closest U.S. Presidential elections

10. 1844

While Whig Party candidate Henry Clay may have lost to Democratic Party candidate James K. Polk by 65 electoral votes, in popular votes he only lost by 1.4%.

This wouldn't be the first time Henry Clay has lost a presidential election too. In fact he has made five serious runs for the presidency, and three times as a major party's candidate, and he lost every time. He has even run for president under three different political parties: The Democratic-Republican Party, the National Republican Party, and the Whig Party.

It should also be noted that Polk also lost his home state (North Carolina) and his state of residence (Tennessee) in this election, and still won, making him the only person to do this.

Polk also only ran for one term.

9. 1968

While Democratic Party candidate Hubert Humphrey may have lost to Republican Party candidate Richard Nixon by 110 electoral votes, he only lost the popular vote by 0.7%.

Some people might believe that George Wallace, the American Independent Party candidate who had won 46 electoral votes, and 13.5% of the popular vote, may have acted as a spoiler for Humphrey, but at that time in our history the south (where Wallace had won all of his votes) was going over from the Democrats to the Republicans. In fact Nixon had won 6 states in what was once the Confederate States, while Humphrey only won Texas.

8. 1884

While Republican Party candidate James G. Blaine may have lost to Democratic Party candidate Grover Cleveland by 37 electoral votes, he only lost the popular vote by 0.3%

This election ultimately came down to New York, Cleveland's home state, which he won by only 1,047 votes out of 1,171,312 votes casts, narrowly securing him the election.

This is also the first time since the Civil War that a Democrat had won a presidential election.

7. 1960

While Republican Party candidate Richard Nixon may have lost to Democratic Party candidate John F. Kennedy by 84 electoral votes, he only lost the popular vote by 0.2%.

This election also had several controversies with it.

The margin of Kennedy's victories in several states was very narrow, even to the point where many on Nixon's campaign staff urged him to demand a recount in those states. Also there were allegations of voter fraud in several places, most notably the city of Chicago and the state of Texas.

Also in this election Virginia Senator Harry Byrd, a Democrat who opposed racial desegregation, won 15 electoral votes, even though he wasn't an announced candidate, and didn't even seek out any votes.

6. 1880

While Democratic Party candidate Winfield Scott Hancock may have lost to Republican Party candidate James A. Garfield by 59 electoral votes, he only lost the popular vote by 0.1%.

This is the smallest popular vote victory in United States history. In fact Garfield only won the popular votes by less than 1,900 votes.

5. 1796

In this election Federalist Party candidate John Adams may have defeated Democratic-Republican Party candidate Thomas Jefferson by 6.8% of the popular vote, he only won the election by three electoral votes.

This election was also a tad bit strange. Because of the way our election laws were at the time the person who came in second place in the election could become Vice President. So instead of John Adams's running mate, Thomas Pinckney, becoming Vice President, Thomas Jefferson became Vice President.

4. 1888

While President Grover Cleveland lost the 1888 presidential election by 65 electoral to Benjamin Harrison, he actually won the popular vote by 0.8%, making this the third time in United States history where a person who didn't win the popular vote won a presidential election.

Despite his loss, President Cleveland did make a come back, and defeated President Harris in the 1892 election by 132 electoral votes, making him the only president to win two non-consecutive terms.

It should be noted that James B. Weaver, the presidential candidate for the Populist Party may have cost President Harris the election as it could be argued that many of the people who voted for Weaver would have voted for President Harris, who only lost the popular vote by 3%, while Weaver managed to win 8.5% of the popular vote (and 22 electoral votes).

3. 2000

This is one of the closest elections in United States history, and one of the most controversial too.

While Democratic Party candidate Al Gore only lost the election by five electoral votes, he actually won the popular vote against Republican Party candidate George W. Bush by 0.5%.

Ultimately the election came down to Florida, where after several recounts in several counties, the Florida Supreme Count awarded Bush the state, and the presidency. This ruling is still controversial even to this day, with many critics stating that if a full state wide recount had been done, Gore might have won the state, and the election.

It should also be noted that many people consider Ralph Nader, who ran as the presidential candidate for the Green Party, may have also cost Gore the election, as he had gotten about 2.7% of the popular vote, which most likely would have gone to Gore if he had not run.

2. 1876

Democratic Party candidate Samuel J. Tilden may have won the popular vote by 3.1%, but he still lost the election to Republican Party candidate Rutherford B. Hayes by one electoral vote.

This is the closest election in United States history, and is the only one where a candidate received the absolute majority in the popular vote (51% in fact) and still didn't win.

The election was also very controversial too, with 20 electoral votes that were disputed, all of which were ultimately awarded Hayes.

This election also led to the creation of the temporary Electoral Commission and the Compromise of 1877.

1. 1824

While the election of 1876 is the closest in United States history, the election of of 1824 is probably one of the strangest in United States history.

Besides the fact that it had four candidates that all won electoral votes, all four candidates were from the same political party, the Democratic-Republican Party.

This election gets even stranger, as the person that won both the electoral and popular votes, Andrew Jackson, still didn't win the election. The reason for this is because he did not win enough electoral votes to be legally declared the winner, so it was up to Congress to decide who would be winner.

Ultimately Congress gave the victory to John Q. Adams, who was second in both electoral votes and the popular votes.

This is the only time in United States history where a person who won neither the popular vote, nor the electoral vote, still won the presidential election.

25 interesting facts about the Vice Presidents of the United States

25. John Tyler is the shortest serving Vice President of the United States, having been in the office for only 31 days before becoming President of the United States upon President William Henry Harrison's death.

24. William R. King is the shortest serving Vice President to have also died in office.

23. Daniel D. Tompkins, Thomas R. Marshall, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Al Gore, and Dick Cheney are the longest serving Vice Presidents, having served two full terms in office.

22. Andrew Johnson is the last person to be elected Vice President of the United States that ran neither as a Democrat, nor a Republican, but, along with President Abraham Lincoln, ran as a candidate for the National Union Party

21. A person must be a natural-born citizen, be at least 35 years old, and must have been a permanent resident of the United States 14 years in order to be eligible to run for Vice President, same as President.

20. Unlike with the President of the United States, there are no term limits for the Vice President.

19. There has been more Vice Presidents of the United States then Presidents of the United States. 47 Vice Presidents to be exact, while there has been only 43 Presidents.

18. John C. Calhoun is the only Vice President to be Vice President under two different political parties: The Democratic-Republicans, and the Democrats.

17. John Tyler and John C. Breckinridge are the only two former Vice Presidents to side with the Confederate States during the Civil War. Breckinridge even fought for the Confederate States as a Major General.

16. Alben W. Barkley is the oldest Vice President. He was 71 when he assumed the office, and 75 when he left.

15. John C. Breckinridge, at the age of 36, became the youngest person to become Vice President.

14.  The longest living Vice President was John Nance Garner, who was almost 99 years old when he died.

13. The shortest lived Vice President was Daniel D. Tompkins, who was almost 51 years old when he died.

12. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Richard Nixon all had two Vice Presidents.

11. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had three Vice Presidents, and thus more Vice Presidents then any other President.

10. Presidents John Tyler, Millard Filmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester A. Arthur never had a Vice President.

9. No Vice President has ever been assassinated.

8. George Clinton and John C. Calhoun are the only two Vice Presidents to serve under two different Presidents.

7. The Presidential election of 1800 is the only election where the current Vice President ran against the current President.

6. The elections of 1789, 1792, and 1796 are the only ones which a Vice President was elected that was of a different party then the President.

5. Martin Van Buren and George H. W. Bush are the only Vice Presidents to be elected President of the United States and after the terms of the presidents they served under, Andrew Johnson and Ronald Reagan, ended. Ironically, both only served one term, while their predecessors served two terms.

4. Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson, are the only four Vice Presidents to become president after the previous president died, and then win a presidential election on their own.

3. John Tyler, Millard Filmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, and Gerald Ford are the only five Vice Presidents who later became President of the United States, but was never elected president, and only became president after the previous presidents died or resigned.

2. John C. Calhoun and Spiro Agnew are the only two Vice Presidents to resign from office. Calhoun resigned to take a seat in the United States Senate. Agnew resigned due to criminal charges, which he later pleaded no contest to.

1. George Clinton, Elbridge Gerry, William R. King, Henry Wilson, Thomas A. Hendricks, Garret Hobart, and James S. Sherman are the only Vice Presidents to die in office.