the 1920 election is normally interpreted as a reaction against the activisim and zeal of the Teddy Roosevelt/Wilson era (even if they were both from different parties and had Taft in the middle of them).
And 1876 is another good example: after 8 years of Grant, the Dems managed to seize enough Union states to win the "popular vote" (with the help of their paramilitaries).
The Democrats ironically pissed away their PV advantage in the 1890's. The severe reduction of the southern voter turnout after the wave of voter suppression laws aimed at blacks and poor whites as well as the alienation of non-Irish catholics during the Bryan era, is what allowed the Republicans to win big PV vote margin after 1896, after 20 years of close contests and narrow PV losses in most of them.