New Jersey, Split Electoral Vote, 1860

[rbt48]

I've often wondered how Lincoln received four of New Jersey's seven electoral votes in 1860 in spite of losing the popular vote to Douglas, 62,869 to 58,346.  I finally found the answer which you can read at this link:  http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9407E0DC1638E233A25755C2A9649D94639ED7CF&oref=slogin

I don't fully understand the particulars, but the popular vote totals given for New Jersey are the top elector totals.  Four of the seven Democratic electors received fewer votes than the seven Rebuplican electors, whose totals ranged from 58,316 to the maximum total shown of 58,346.

I welcome any comments others may have.

[rbt48]

New Jersey voting for someone else than Abe Lincoln is just another screwup in the long list of Jersey Electoral blunders.

Well, Lincoln lost the popular vote to McClellan by over 5% in 1864 which was (I would judge) even a bigger blunder.  Republicans wouldn't capture NJ in a presidential election until Grant's run for a second term in 1872 and not for a second time until 1896.  After that, save for 1912, it was reliably Republican until 1932. 

It does seem to me misleading that, in tabulations of popular vote for 1860, zero votes are credited to Breckenridge as well as for Bell (and all to Douglas) even though 4 of the 7 were not pledged to Douglas.  I suppose that is consistent with how the Alabama popular votes for the Democratic electors were all credited to Kennedy, even though only 5 of the 11 electors were pledged to Kennedy.  I don't have a method to rectify this misleading situation, but it might be worthy of further discussion.

Additionally mysterious in 1860 is the Pennsylvania popular vote tally.  Breckenridge is credited with 37.5% of the vote and Douglas with only 3.5%, a little more than Bell's 2.7%.  I'm inferring that the statewide party chose to run a Breckenridge slate and a few counties distributed Douglas slates.  If anyone has further insight on the Pennsylvania vote, please share it.

[rbt48]

Thanks for this great response (Daniel Adams) on New Jersey (1860), Alabama (1960), and Pennsylvania (1860).  For years it baffled me how Breckenridge could have run so strongly in Pennsylvania, but this explains what really took place.

[rbt48]

As to Breckenridge's strength in parts of the north (1860), I recall that (later) Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was a Pennsylvania supporter of Breckenridge, as he believed his election would best serve to preserve the Union.  This sentiment is probably reflective of some of the northern support for Breckenridge.  Though, it is worth pointing out that except for CA, CT, PA, and OR, his best showing in the North was a mere 6.3% of the vote in Maine.

Breckenridge's VP running mate was Sen Herschel Lane of Oregon, which might have contributed to his strong second place finish in that state.