Americans have waited on contested presidential elections before
The wait for a winner in the 2020 presidential race is not unprecedented in American history.
The most notable example is the 1876 campaign, which remains one of the most disputed presidential outcomes. Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, who lost the popular vote by more than 250,000, was finally declared the winner by a special commission in February 1877.
In that era, neither candidate actively campaigned and the Democratic candidate, New York Gov. Samuel Tilden, was favored in the final days before the election. As the votes came in, that prediction seemed accurate, and both candidates went to bed on the night of the election thinking Tilden had won.
Tilden's total was good for 184 electoral votes — one short of what he needed (at the time, there were 38 states). Hayes had 165.
But those totals did not reflect the returns of three Southern states — South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida — that were extremely tight and appeared to be in disarray. Each of those states was occupied by federal troops as part of Reconstruction, which had begun in 1865. In addition, an elector from Oregon was accused of ineligibility.
The electoral votes of the three states, plus the Oregon elector, totaled 20 — the number Hayes needed to win.
Republicans challenged the returns, claiming Democratic wins in the South were due to intimidation of Black voters. The three southern states proceeded to submit conflicting certificates of election, further clouding the issue.
The 1800 and 1824 presidential races had been controversial because no candidate won a majority of electoral votes. Both of those races were decided in the U.S. House. But there was no precedent to deal with the charges swirling around the 1876 election.
Eventually, on Jan. 18, 1877, a joint congressional committee called for a special electoral commission to decide which votes were valid.
Five members each were selected from the House, Senate and Supreme Court. One of the justices, David Davis of Illinois, was an independent who was expected to vote with the Democrats. However, Davis was appointed by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate (direct election of senators was not permitted until the 17th Amendment in 1913), and resigned from the high court.
Davis was replaced by a Republican justice, Joseph Bradley of New Jersey, which gave the GOP an 8-7 edge on the commission. In February, the commission voted along party lines, awarding all four states, and the 20 electoral votes, to Hayes for a 185-184 advantage.
Reconstruction ended later in 1877. Many historians have speculated a backroom compromise was cut, promising to lift Reconstruction from the South in return for Hayes' election.
More recently, the 2000 presidential race was disputed for several weeks after the November election, as the contest between Al Gore and George W. Bush broke down into a maze of court fights, hand recounts and “hanging chads.”
The dispute centered on Florida and its 25 electoral votes. The legal battle advanced to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in Bush's favor on Dec. 12, handing him the victory by a single electoral vote.
The loser in the 2020 presidential race will collect more than 200 electoral votes, the fifth time that has occurred in the last six elections. Before that, the defeated presidential candidate finished with more than 200 electoral votes only three times — in 1916, 1960 and 1976.
• Tom Emery is a freelance writer and historical researcher from Carlinville, Illinois. He may be reached at (217) 710-8392 or ilcivilwar@yahoo.com