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How has the US struggled to choose a president after elections in history?

University (according to Tin Tuc newspaper) November 6, 2024 15:16

The 47th President of the United States has called out Donald Trump. The tense, exciting moments once again make us look back at past elections that have consumed much ink.

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Mr. Trump and his family on stage speaking in West Palm Beach, Florida, shortly after winning the election. Photo: AP

Election of 1800: The House of Representatives voted 36 times to break the deadlock.

The election of 1800 ended in a tie. The U.S. Constitution gave the House of Representatives the power to choose the next president. However, neither Thomas Jefferson nor Aaron Burr could win more than eight of the 16 states at the time.

The House of Representatives voted 35 times in just one week, but no candidate won a majority. Fortunately, on the 36th ballot, Jefferson won 10 states and the House officially awarded him the presidency.

Election of 1824: A Majority of Electoral College Votes Does Not Mean Victory

Andrew Jackson won both the popular vote and the most electoral votes of the four presidential candidates but did not receive the majority of 131 electoral votes needed to win.

This result also led to a vote in the House of Representatives. However, the person elected president was John Quincy Adams with a narrow victory over the remaining three opponents.

The Election of 1876: The Most Controversial in History

The election of 1876 is considered the most controversial in American history in the contest between Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes and Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden.

Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 votes. However, there were 20 disputed electoral votes, so neither Tilden nor Hayes had a majority of electoral votes. Since Tilden had won 184 electoral votes, one vote short of a majority, Hayes had to win all the disputed electoral votes to win.

Against Tilden’s wishes, Congress appointed a bipartisan Electoral Commission to resolve the dispute. Republicans, with a seat on the commission, decided in a series of party-line rulings that Hayes had won all the disputed electoral votes. Democrats accepted the results only after Republicans agreed to withdraw U.S. troops remaining from the Southern states after the Civil War. Rutherford B. Hayes became the next president of the United States.

Election 2000: Florida recount

In the final days, the race between Republican candidate George W. Bush and Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore was expected to be decided by Florida's 25 electoral votes.

When the voting was complete in Florida, the media declared Al Gore the winner of the state. However, the state's vote count showed Bush leading Gore by several thousand votes. The Gore campaign asked Florida's four largest counties to hand-count the ballots, beginning a lengthy process of examining the ballots.

The results came three weeks later, with Florida declaring Mr Bush the winner by 537 votes. Mr Al Gore objected, and the state's supreme court ordered a recount of thousands of ballots that had been rejected by voting machines because they were not properly punched.

The US Supreme Court ordered a halt to the vote count on December 12, just six days before the Electoral College met, ruling that the US Constitution had been violated because different vote counting standards were applied in different counties.

This court ruling prompted Mr. Al Gore to concede the election results in order to save the country from “partisan infighting”.

University (according to Tin Tuc newspaper)
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How has the US struggled to choose a president after elections in history?