Voters throughout 50 states within the US are casting ballots to decide on the forty seventh president of the nation in an election that has changed into a neck-and-neck battle between the 2 primary candidates.
Thus far, election analysts say this yr’s presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is simply too near name.
Based on FiveThirtyEight’s daily polls tracker, Harris has a 1.2-point lead over Trump nationally. However Trump has begun narrowing the hole in latest days, and has slim leads within the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
But it’s not the primary time that the trail to the US presidency has basically seen a dead heat between candidates. Earlier intently fought presidential elections have additionally seen California and New York – not the everyday swing states – and in addition the US Supreme Courtroom play a job in deciding the winner.
Let’s check out 5 presidential races in US historical past that got here down to a couple thousand votes:
1824: US Home of Representatives weighs in
The 1824 battle for the White Home was a turning level in American historical past as 4 candidates, all from the identical political celebration, competed for the highest publish and the US Home of Representatives needed to decide the winner.
After the demise of Alexander Hamilton, America’s first US secretary of the treasury and a founding father in 1804, the Democratic-Republic Celebration which had defeated Hamilton’s Federalist Celebration, was assured of its simple path to presidency.
However selecting one presidential candidate proved to be onerous for members of the celebration, and John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson and William H Crawford, all from the Democratic-Republic Celebration, campaigned throughout the nation, hoping to grow to be the subsequent president.
When polls closed throughout all 28 US states (the nation now has 50), Jackson was within the lead with 99 electoral votes, adopted by Adams who obtained 84, Crawford who acquired 41 and Clay who acquired 37 electoral votes.
However no candidate obtained a majority.
Based on the Twelfth Modification of the US Structure, in such a case, “the Home of Representatives shall select instantly, by poll, the President”. Furthermore, because the Structure additionally acknowledged that solely the highest three within the race transfer forward, Clay was disqualified.
For round a yr, every candidate lobbied members of the Home of Representatives – the decrease chamber of the US Congress, together with Clay, who was the speaker of the Home.
Lastly, on February 9, 1825, the Home voted to elect Adams because the president of the US, a outcome that got here to kind after a vital vote by Clay. Based on the US Nationwide Archives, he shelved his assist for his dwelling state candidate Jefferson, and picked Adams.
Adams, who was additionally the son of John Adams, the second president of the US, finally picked Clay as his secretary of state.
This didn’t go down effectively with Jackson, and he accused Clay and Adams of participating in a “corrupt discount” and sought an election rematch.
Through the subsequent presidential election in 1828, Jackson managed to beat Adams and have become the president. However his anger in direction of Clay remained.
Based on a US Senate Historic Spotlight temporary, in direction of the top of his presidency, when Jackson was requested if he had any regrets, he stated: “I remorse I used to be unable to shoot Henry Clay…”
1876: One vote modified the sport
Half a century later, the presidential election was determined by one vote within the Electoral Fee – a bunch created by the US Congress comprising 14 congressmen and a Supreme Courtroom justice, to unravel the disputed presidential race.
The 1876 election noticed Republican Celebration candidate Rutherford B Hayes, who had additionally fought within the US Civil Conflict, up towards Democratic Celebration candidate Samuel Tilden, a politician recognized for his anti-corruption insurance policies. Furthermore, this being an period when the US was simply recovering from the 18th-century Civil Conflict and Congress had handed a number of Reconstruction Acts, one of many targets was making certain that the voting rights of Black People had been safe.
However in lots of southern states like Louisiana, white People needed a return to white supremacy and had been protesting towards efforts to enfranchise Black folks within the nation since 1873. Describing the scenario within the south, in his essay Black Reconstruction: An Essay Towards a Historical past of the Half Black Folks Performed within the Try and Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860-1880, historian WEB Du Bois wrote: “The slave went free; stood a quick second within the solar; then moved again once more towards slavery.”
By the 1876 presidential election, the Black vote had virtually been repressed and this led to the Democratic Celebration changing into in style amongst Black voters within the South, particularly in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida.
Based on White Home archives, “The favored vote apparently was 4,300,000 for Tilden to 4,036,000 for Hayes”. Nonetheless, Hayes’s probabilities of election depended upon contested electoral votes in Louisiana, South Carolina and Florida. So the Republicans demanded a recount.
After months of uncertainty, in 1877, Congress weighed in and shaped the Electoral Fee, which voted in favour of Hayes. After the fee’s vote, Hayes defeated Tilden by one vote: 185 electoral votes to 184.
On profitable the elections, Hayes pledged to guard Black People’ rights within the South and in addition inspired the “restoration of clever, trustworthy, and peaceable native self-government”.
1884: When New York was a swing state
New York has been a stronghold for the Democratic Celebration in newer years. However in 1884, the state was a swing state and performed a vital function in deciding the winner of the presidential race, which was additionally marred by a scandal.
Republican candidate James G Blaine was up towards the Democratic Celebration’s Grover Cleveland, who was additionally the mayor of New York.
Again then, the US was rife with financial drama and crammed with corrupt money-making offers. The Democratic Celebration was in style within the southern states within the US and Cleveland had impressed folks in New York together with his anti-corruption insurance policies. He and the Democratic Celebration believed that they had a simple path to success.
However simply days after Cleveland was nominated because the presidential candidate of the Democratic Celebration on July 11, the Buffalo Night Telegraph reported that he had fathered a son with a lady named Maria Halpin. Based on the US Library of Congress, the kid had been given away to an orphanage since Cleveland was not sure the kid was his. However he helped the kid financially till he was adopted.
The Republican Celebration latched on to this story as its candidate, Blaine, had been painted by the Democratic Celebration marketing campaign as a liar and politician concerned in money offers.
In flip, in accordance with the Library of Congress, a well-liked satirical publication known as The Decide ran a cartoon of Cleveland titled: “Ma, Ma, The place’s my Pa?”
Whereas Cleveland was operating on the slogan, “Inform the reality”, the scandal dented his assist base in New York, essentially the most populous state carrying 36 electoral votes again then.
When polls closed, Cleveland’s lead was slim within the state and he obtained 563,048 votes in New York to Blaine’s 562,001.
Ultimately, the few thousand votes determined by New York along with the mixed assist of reform Republicans who disliked Blaine helped Cleveland win.
Based on White Home archives, President Cleveland pursued a coverage of not providing favours to any financial teams. He was additionally stated to not significantly benefit from the comforts of the White Home.
As president, he as soon as wrote to a buddy: “I have to go to dinner…however I want it was to eat a pickled herring, a Swiss cheese and a chop at Louis’ as an alternative of the French stuff I shall discover.”
1916: California calls the photographs
In 1916, a drink in Lengthy Seashore, California was what it took to upend the US presidential race between Woodrow Wilson, from the Democratic Celebration, and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes.
Again then, the western US state recognized for its picturesque seashores and redwood forests had 13 electoral votes and was a swing state. At the moment, being essentially the most populous state, it has 54 electoral votes – essentially the most within the US.
Furthermore, moreover presidential candidates, two members of California’s Republican Celebration – Hiram Johnson and conservative William Sales space – hoped to win seats within the US Senate.
Based on the Historical past Channel, whereas campaigning in Lengthy Seashore, Hughes was informed that Johnson was staying in the identical lodge as him however didn’t have interaction with Johnson or provide him a drink.
Johnson wasn’t more than happy and didn’t provide his assist to Hughes in California, which means Wilson received the swing state by round 3,000 votes. Wilson additionally received the presidency.
2000: US Supreme Courtroom decides
The presidential race of 2000 noticed Democrat Al Gore, the vice chairman of the nation again then, and Republican George W Bush, who was the governor of Texas, compete. The competition in the end got here all the way down to Florida — and the US Supreme Courtroom needed to weigh in.
On election night time, as polls closed throughout the nation, it grew to become clear the 25 electoral votes in Florida, a swing state, would decide the winner. When outcomes from the Sunshine State trickled in, TV networks throughout the US started asserting that Bush had received the state’s electoral votes. Gore known as Bush to congratulate him, however quickly withdrew his concession when Bush’s lead in Florida started dropping.
Attorneys from the Democratic Celebration and Republican Celebration started a authorized struggle over the votes, with Gore’s attorneys additionally demanding a recount.
The battle went to the nation’s Supreme Courtroom and, after weeks of uncertainty, the court docket stated the recounts couldn’t be established and voted 5-4 in favour of Bush’s victory.
The Bush versus Gore election continues to hang-out the nation’s court docket, which has usually stayed away from elections.
In 2013, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who voted with the bulk within the Supreme Courtroom, told the Chicago Tribune that the “court docket took the case and determined it at a time when it was nonetheless a giant election concern. … Perhaps the court docket ought to have stated, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye’.”
