Electioneering

The events of this week have turned the mind back to the 1860 and '64 races, wondering about comparisons to popular vote and electoral college outcomes.

In the first, Lincoln needed 152 electoral college votes to win; he secured 180 (17.5 states), even though he took less than 40% of the popular vote. Still, the closest challenger, Douglas, had less than 30% and only 12 electoral votes (1.5 states). Breckinridge was next (11 states), and Bell last (3 states).

Michigan's vote total was far less divided: 57.2% Lincoln, 42% Douglas, the remainder B/B, out of 154,758 total votes.

In 1864 the eleven Confederate states sat it out (dramatically altering the calculus). Lincoln took 22 states and 55% of the popular vote, while McClellan 3 states and 45%. Electoral college totals: Lincoln 212 when 117 needed; McClellan 21.

Michigan's vote margin was closer than in '60 but still for Lincoln, 53.6% to 46.4%, out of 147,662 total votes.

But: why this reduced vote total? Michigan's electoral college total had increased to 8 from 6, most likely due to overall population increase. Did fewer people turn out? Was the soldiers' vote was not counted in the State's returns?

It must have been. The Adjutant General's report recounts how an act of the Legislature made effective on February 5, 1864, enabled the troops to vote in the field on November 7. Commissioners made their way from Petersburg VA to Washington hospitals to Lookout Mountain TN to Atlanta GA. The citizen voters went to the ballot box on November 8. So the military results must have been telegraphed?

Suggests a need for more research. Perhaps The Organizational Performance of Michigan's Adjutant General and the Federal Provost Marshal General in Recruiting Michigan's Boys in Blue by Robert E. Mitchell, Michigan Historical Review, Vol. 28 (2002), will help.