Talk:1860 United States presidential election

Results by state

		Abraham Lincoln Republican			Stephen Douglas (Northern) Democratic			John Breckinridge (Southern) Democratic			John Bell Constitutional Union			Fusion (Non-Republican) (Democratic Fusion)			State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#
Alabama	9	no ballots			0001361813,618	15.1	-	0004866948,669	54.0	9	27,835	30.9	-	no ballots			90,122	AL
Arkansas	4	no ballots			5,357	9.9	-	28,732	53.1	4	20,063	37.0	-	no ballots			54,152	AR
California	4	38,733	32.3	4	37,999	31.7	-	33,969	28.4	-	9,111	7.6	-	no ballots			119,812	CA
Connecticut	6	43,488	58.1	6	15,431	20.6	-	14,372	19.2	-	1,528	2.0	-	no ballots			74,819	CT
Delaware	3	3,822	23.7	-	1,066	6.6	-	7,339	45.5	3	3,888	24.1	-	no ballots			16,115	DE
Florida	3	no ballots			223	1.7	-	8,277	62.2	3	4,801	36.1	-	no ballots			13,301	FL
Georgia	10	no ballots			11,581	10.9	-	52,176	48.9	10	42,960	40.3	-	no ballots			106,717	GA
Illinois	11	172,171	50.7	11	160,215	47.2	-	2,331	0.7	-	4,914	1.4	-	no ballots			339,631	IL
Indiana	13	139,033	51.1	13	115,509	42.4	-	12,295	4.5	-	5,306	1.9	-	no ballots			272,143	IN
Iowa	4	70,302	54.6	4	55,639	43.2	-	1,035	0.8	-	1,763	1.4	-	no ballots			128,739	IA
Kentucky	12	1,364	0.9	-	25,651	17.5	-	53,143	36.3	-	66,058	45.2	12	no ballots			146,216	KY
Louisiana	6	no ballots			7,625	15.1	-	22,681	44.9	6	20,204	40.0	-	no ballots			50,510	LA
Maine	8	62,811	62.2	8	29,693	29.4	-	6,368	6.3	-	2,046	2.0	-	no ballots			100,918	ME
Maryland	8	2,294	2.5	-	5,966	6.4	-	42,482	45.9	8	41,760	45.1	-	no ballots			92,502	MD
Massachusetts	13	106,684	62.9	13	34,370	20.3	-	6,163	3.6	-	22,331	13.2	-	no ballots			169,548	MA
Michigan	6	88,481	57.2	6	65,057	42.0	-	805	0.5	-	415	0.3	-	no ballots			154,758	MI
Minnesota	4	22,069	63.4	4	11,920	34.3	-	748	2.2	-	50	0.1	-	no ballots			34,787	MN
Mississippi	7	no ballots			3,282	4.7	-	40,768	59.0	7	25,045	36.2	-	no ballots			69,095	MS
Missouri	9	17,028	10.3	-	58,801	35.5	9	31,362	18.9	-	58,372	35.3	-	no ballots			165,563	MO
New Hampshire	5	37,519	56.9	5	25,887	39.3	-	2,125	3.2	-	412	0.6	-	no ballots			65,943	NH
New Jersey	7	58,346	48.1	4	no ballots		3	no ballots		-	no ballots		-	62,869	51.9	-	121,215	NJ
New York	35	362,646	53.7	35	no ballots		-	no ballots		-	no ballots		-	312,510	46.3	-	675,156	NY
North Carolina	10	no ballots			2,737	2.8	-	48,846	50.5	10	45,129	46.7	-	no ballots			96,712	NC
Ohio	23	231,709	52.3	23	187,421	42.3	-	11,406	2.6	-	12,194	2.8	-	no ballots			442,730	OH
Oregon	3	5,329	36.1	3	4,136	28.0	-	5,075	34.4	-	218	1.5	-	no ballots			14,758	OR
Pennsylvania	27	268,030	56.3	27	16,765	3.5	-	no ballots			12,776	2.7	-	178,871	37.5	-	476,442	PA
Rhode Island	4	12,244	61.4	4	7,707	38.6	-	no ballots			no ballots			no ballots			19,951	RI
South Carolina	8	no popular vote			no popular vote			no popular vote		8	no popular vote			no popular vote			-	SC
Tennessee	12	no ballots			11,281	7.7	-	65,097	44.6	-	69,728	47.7	12	no ballots			146,106	TN
Texas	4	no ballots			18	0.0	-	47,454	75.5	4	15,383	24.5	-	no ballots			62,855	TX
Vermont	5	33,808	75.7	5	8,649	19.4	-	218	0.5	-	1,969	4.4	-	no ballots			44,644	VT
Virginia	15	1,887	1.1	-	16,198	9.7	-	74,325	44.5	-	74,481	44.6	15	no ballots			166,891	VA
Wisconsin	5	86,110	56.6	5	65,021	42.7	-	887	0.6	-	161	0.1	-	no ballots			152,179	WI
TOTALS:	303	1,865,908	39.8	180	1,004,823	21.5	12	669,148	14.3	72	590,901	12.6	39	554,250	11.8	0	4,685,030	US
TO WIN:	152

Key dates in election

Election No.	Presidential Election	Electoral College Vote	Electoral Vote tabulated by a Joint Session of Congress	Inauguration
19	November 6, 1860	December 5, 1860	February 13, 1861	March 4, 1861

Inconsistent Popular Vote Totals

Currently, the article is home to three (four?) different sources for the popular vote throughout the text, none of which agree with eachother. The first and most important source cited — as it's the source for the infobox results and results section — is Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, which is currently dead link. As the Internet Archive is currently down, I’m unable to verify exactly what it originally said when it was added. The website does have an active page for 1860 but it provides a different total for the national vote.

As in the infobox/results section:

Lincoln - 1,865,908

Breckinridge - 848,019

John Bell - 590,901

Stephen Douglas - 1,380,202

"Other" - 531

But in the website cited it's:

Lincoln - 1,855,993

Breckinridge - 851,844

John Bell - 590,946

Stephen Douglas - 1,381,944

"Write-in" - 369

"-" - 171

Then there's Walter Dean Burnham's Presidential ballots, 1836–1892, which is stated as the referenced for the results by state section. In the book, on page 246, the national popular vote is listed as:

Lincoln - 1,865,693

Breckinridge - 848,356

John Bell - 692,906

Stephen Douglas - 1,382,713

No mention of other votes in the table.

Finally, there's Micheal J. Dubin's United States Presidential Elections, 1788–1860: The Official Results by County and State, which is sprinkled throughout the results by state section and cited for the Liberty Party's vote in the nomination section. On page 159, the national popular vote totals are listed as:

Lincoln - 1,855,276

Breckinridge - 672,601

John Bell - 590,980

Stephen Douglas - 1,004,042

Fusion - 553,570

Union - 176

I would suggust using Dubin's vote totals exclusively because he cites his sources (something the Atlas does not), provides extensive detail with numerous notes, and is the only source to separate out the Fusion and Union votes which are already discussed separately in the article, as well as in the state election articles. Wowzers122 (talk) 03:38, 13 October 2024 (UTC)

The current popular vote data listed on this page are substantially different from this source,

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/elections/1860

which is much closer to the results Eric Foner has published in his Lincoln Biography, The Fiery Trial.

I'll update the page to align with the ucsb.edu source if there are no objections. GibbsDuhem (talk) 13:04, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

@GibbsDuhem: I am of the opinion that we should keep the totals given by Micheal J. Dubin's United States Presidential Elections, 1788–1860: The Official Results by County and State, which I had previously boldly updated the page to match. My concern with switching to the ucsb.edu source is that I don't see where the page is getting its information from, unlike the former. Additionally, the page seems to give all fusion ticket votes to Douglas in New York and New Jersey, and to Breckinridge in Pennsylvania. The source also doesn't list votes cast for Smith of the Liberty Party. Wowzers122 (talk) 15:18, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

I do not have a copy of Dubin's references. Have you been able to trace any of them to primary sources? I suppose these might be very difficult to source, but Foner appears to be widely regarded as a historian of merit and his book, The Fiery Trial uses numbers much closer to ucsb's. I find it confusing, as you seemingly also have. Perhaps I'll have to read Dubin's work in search of alignment with your take on this. Being that I am most certainly an amateur history buff at best, I am loath to engage in an unagreed upon revision to this article. GibbsDuhem (talk) 22:54, 28 November 2024 (UTC)