US Presidential Election Results,1789 - 2012 .FAQ 1. Where are the Democratic-Republicans? "Democratic-Republican" is an anachronistic term, used today to differentiate the early "party", if you would call it that, founded by Jefferson and Madison, from the contemporary Republican Party, which was founded in 1854. In the 1790s and 1800s, the Democratic-Republicans were more commonly called Republicans, and to a lesser extent just Democrats. To be historically accurate, I have chosen to call them Republicans in this video. One need only read Jefferson's words for proof, for in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, he explicitly states, "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." In this video, these early Republicans have been colored green, to delineate from today's Republican Party, which is colored red. 2. What is the significance of the colors? There is no significance to the color scheme chosen. American political parties do not have official colors, unlike parties in, say, the UK. They're simply employed to distinguish candidates' state victories. The Red-Blue, Republican-Democratic schematic is a relatively recent phenomenon. I've maintained that in this video, but those are by no means either party's official color. 3. Why is Washington a Federalist? While very technically it's true, Washington belonged to no party (and in 1789, during the first election, he is shown as unaffiliated), parties do very quickly develop, albeit loosely, in the ensuing four years, so that by 1792, one can legitimately label Washington a Federalist. 4. Isn't Andrew Jackson a Democrat? Yes, Andrew Jackson is the first Democratic president. He helped create the modern-day Democratic Party. But this was only when John Quincy Adams became president in 1824-25, despite losing the popular vote. The furor this and the subsequent "corrupt bargain" with House Speaker Henry Clay caused throughout the countryside, particularly among Jacksonian farmers, was cleverly cultivated for four years until Jackson ran against Adams again in 1828. By then, the Democratic Party had been formed to channel that passion into electing Jackson to the presidency. However, in 1824, during the end of the Era of Good Feelings, everyone was technically a Democratic-Republican, which I have labeled Republican, per the aforementioned point. 5. Where are John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur? These men were never elected to the presidency. They were only elected as Vice Presidents. This is a video of election results, not presidential succession. Thus, they only appear whenever they're on a national ballot. I'm not including 1841, 1850, 1865, and 1881, as transition years, since these are about election results. 6. State Designations. Between 1789 and 1824, the map in this video displays the electoral vote allocations per state. Beginning in 1824, when popular vote numbers began to become more widely tabulated, the map shows each state's popular vote winner. Therefore, Maryland in 1908 is colored Red for Republican because William Taft carried the state very narrowly by popular vote, despite W.J. Bryan collecting 6 of its 8 electoral votes. There are exceptions. For years, South Carolina did not use a popular vote system, but continued to have state legislatures choose electors. In these instances, I simply colored the state for that particular electoral vote winner. 7. Where is Ralph Nader? Or other, minor third-party candidates? Yes, although Nader may have cost Al Gore some votes in certain states in 2000, which ultimately meant the election, he was historically not a major third-party candidate. My criteria for this was simple: they had to crack 6% on the popular vote OR carry at least one state. In some instances, a third-party candidate nabbed a handful of states, without breaking 6%, such as Strom Thurmond in 1948, but in other instances, a candidate like Ross Perot could receive 18%, without winning a single electoral vote. 8. Where are the faithless electors? I didn't find it of particular relevance or importance to note the faithless electors. Additionally, if a state allocated its electoral votes to a candidate that was not of the top two parties, nor one of the listed third or fourth parties, but was just a protest vote, they were colored grey for "others." This is by no means intended to be an exhaustive list of electoral vote allocations, but merely a five-minute presentation of US electoral history. Also note, excepting the earlier elections, where portraits are few and far between, each image of the candidate was chosen as close to the election year as possible. I think it gives the election a greater sense of accuracy. The two notable exceptions are Washington, whose portrait is from 1797, and JQ Adams, whose is from decades after his presidency. I found those pictures to be the most suitable.

• published: 11 Jan 2013
• views: 24367