U.S. presidential election, 1820

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The U.S. presidential election of 1820 was the third and last presidential election in U.S. history in which a candidate ran effectively unopposed (after the presidential elections of 1789 and 1792, in which George Washington ran without serious opposition).

During the campaign, incumbent President James Monroe of the Democratic-Republican Party ran virtually unopposed for reelection. William Plumer, an elector from New Hampshire and former U.S. Senator and Governor, cast his electoral ballot for then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. While some accounts say that this was to ensure that Washington remained the only American president unanimously chosen by the Electoral College, others claim it was out of a sincere belief that Monroe was not the best choice.

This election also marked the end of the Federalist Party, which did not nominate a candidate for President.

This was the first election in which Alabama, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, and Mississippi (all admitted to the union in the past four years) cast votes.

Daniel D. Tompkins ran for Vice President, defeating Richard Stockton, Daniel Rodney, Robert Goodloe Harper, and Richard Rush.

Contents

1 General election 1.1 Results 1.1.1 Breakdown by ticket 2 Electoral college selection 3 See also 4 Reference

General election

Results

In all, 235 electors were appointed, but three deceased electors (one each from Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Tennessee) were not replaced prior to votes being cast.

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote(a)		Electoral Vote
			Count	Percentage
James Monroe	Republican	Virginia	—	—	231
John Quincy Adams	Republican	Massachusetts	—	—	1
Total			—	100%	232
Needed to win					117

^(a) Only 15 of the 24 states chose electors by popular vote; hence, popular vote figures for this election are generally considered meaningless.

Vice Presidential Candidate	Party	State	Electoral Vote
Daniel D Tompkins	Republican	New York	218
Richard Stockton	Federalist	New Jersey	8
Daniel Rodney	Federalist	Delaware	4
Robert Goodloe Harper	Federalist	Maryland	1
Richard Rush	Federalist	Pennsylvania	1
Total			232
Needed to win			117

Breakdown by ticket

Presidential Candidate	Running Mate	Electoral Vote
James Monroe	Daniel D Tompkins	218
James Monroe	Richard Stockton	8
James Monroe	Daniel Rodney	4
James Monroe	Robert Goodloe Harper	1
John Quincy Adams	Richard Rush	1

Note that all of these tickets except Monroe/Tompkins are split tickets, with a Republican presidential candidate and a Federalist vice presidential candidate. Note also that these split tickets represent only 6.0% of the electoral vote.

Electoral college selection

Method of choosing Electors	State(s)
each Elector appointed by state legislature	Alabama Delaware Georgia Indiana Louisiana Missouri New York South Carolina Vermont
each Elector chosen by voters statewide	Connecticut Mississippi New Hampshire New Jersey North Carolina Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia
state is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district	Illinois Kentucky Maryland Tennessee
two Electors chosen by voters statewide one Elector chosen per Congressional district by the voters of that district	Maine Massachusetts

See also

• History of the United States (1789-1849)

Reference

• "A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College (http://www.thegreenpapers.com/Hx/ElectoralCollege.html)." The Green Papers. Accessed on March 20, 2005.

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