According to certified election results released earlier this week, Mitt Romney may not have actually won the Iowa caucus on January 3. While the results in Iowa may not matter as much as they do in a general election, this isn’t the first time in U.S. history that election results have been ambiguous.
Let’s take a look at three of the most disputed elections in American history:
*Election of 1800 – The United States was a young nation still trying to find its way when this election, often referred to as the “Revolution of 1800,” shook its political foundation. The election was the first bitterly partisan vote in American history and it ended up in an Electoral College tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. It took over thirty votes in the House of Representatives but eventually Jefferson emerged as the winner and became the third president of the United States.
*Election of 1876 – If this election were a Hollywood script it would have been rejected for being too dramatic. Democrat Samuel Tilden beat Republican Rutherford B. Hayes by over 250,000 in the popular vote. And he was leading in the Electoral College as well, 184 to 165 with just one more electoral vote needed to become the ninetieth president of the United States. The problem, however, was that four states–Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina–had disputed election results with chicanery on both sides. The Constitution offered no resolution so an electoral commission was set up, compromises where made in Congress, and Hayes “won” what many historians have called the most disputed election in U.S. history.
*Election of 2000 – This extremely tight contest between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush–Gore had won the popular vote by a mere half of one percent–eventually all came down to Florida whose electoral votes would swing the election in either direction. Bush had won The Sunshine State by a paltry 537 votes but a series of lawsuits, mostly centered around Florida’s controversial “butterfly ballot,” quickly ensued. While the Florida Supreme Court had quickly ordered a recount, the decision was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and in a dramatic 5-4 ruling the highest court in the land halted the recount. As a result, Bush won Florida’s 25 electoral votes giving him enough to win the election and become the nation’s 43rd president.