Incumbent President seeking re-election in boldface

This table begins with the Presidential Election of 1828 because, first of all, "appointing" of Presidential Electors via Popular Vote was well established in the vast majority of the States of the American Union by this time and, secondly, because this Election is truly the origin of the modern American Two-(Major) Party System. The original two national Parties were the Federalists and the (old) Republicans which contested the earliest Elections after the retirement of President Washington beginning in 1796; by the start of the 1820s, however, the Federalists were virtually moribund as a national Party and, in 1824, all the candidates for the Presidency viably contending for the pledges of Presidential Electors that year were ostensibly (old) Republicans. In that Election of 1824, Andrew Jackson won the most Electoral Votes but was still short of a majority; John Quincy Adams (who had come in second to Jackson in the Electoral Vote) was subsequently elected President by the U.S. House of Representatives: the (old) Republicans, soon thereafter, split into "Adams" and "Jackson" factions, with the "Jackson" wing becoming the Democratic Republicans (later, Democrats) and the "Adams" wing becoming the National Republicans (later, Whigs) as a direct result of the campaign for the Presidency between the two men in 1828, hence this Election as the starting point for the above table.

1828: In this Presidential Election, the State legislatures of both DELAWARE and SOUTH CAROLINA "appointed" (and, by extension, also pledged) their respective Presidential Electors; all other States which participated in this Election "appointed" (thus, also pledged) their respective Electors via Popular Vote.

1832 through 1860: Throughout this period, the legislature of the State of SOUTH CAROLINA "appointed" (and, by extension, also pledged) that State's Presidential Electors; all other States which participated in these Elections "appointed" (thus, also pledged) their respective Electors via Popular Vote.

1836: For this Election, the WHIG Party nominated different candidates for President in different sections of the Nation. The working strategy here was that these "favorite son" candidates would be viewed more favorably in their home regions than other possible Whig candidates might be, increasing the chances of the Whigs winning over voters nationwide; if the total number of Electors for the Whigs- even with the Party's several "nominees" for President- could exceed a majority of the total Electoral Vote, no single Whig candidate would be able to gain a majority but the Election would then be thrown into the Whig-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in any event. When Democrat Van Buren emerged with a majority of the Electoral Vote anyway, however, this strategy was mooted (and, at least somewhat ironically, because Van Buren's running mate Richard Johnson could not gain a majority of the Electoral Vote for Vice President, it was the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate [for the only time in its history] that would choose the Vice President coming out of this Election).

1864: 1 Republican Elector from NEVADA never ever cast his vote, reducing Republican Lincoln's Electoral Vote by 1 from the number of Presidential Electors originally pledged to him. This election, by the way, was the very first Presidential Election in which all the States participating "appointed" (and, by extension, pledged) Presidential Electors via Popular Vote.

1868: In this Election, the legislature of the State of FLORIDA "appointed" (and, by extension, also pledged) that State's Presidential Electors; all other States that participated in this Election "appointed" (thus, also pledged) their respective Electors via Popular Vote.

1872: Democrat Greeley died on 29 November 1872, less than a month after the General Election in which 66 Presidential Electors had been pledged to him and less than a week before the Electors themselves were scheduled to meet in their respective States and cast their votes: this accounts for the divided final Electoral Vote for Democratic candidates other than Greeley re: this Election in the above table (the total of such votes equaling 63 because 3 votes cast by Electors for the now-deceased Greeley were among the 17 Electoral Votes not counted by Congress later on [on the grounds that, Greeley being dead, they had not been cast for a "person" as required by the U.S. Constitution]). 14 Electoral Votes for Republican incumbent President Grant (6 from ARKANSAS and 8 from LOUISIANA) were also not counted by Congress because of disputes involving the accuracy of the election returns from those two States (a foreshadowing of the very next Presidential Election).

1876: The (in)famous 'Disputed Election': 20 Electoral Votes were in dispute- 19 total from three Southern States (FLORIDA, LOUISIANA and SOUTH CAROLINA) that had sent dual sets of election returns (and the votes cast by two rival slates of Electors from each of these States) to be counted by Congress and 1 involving a Republican Hayes Elector from OREGON who had accepted a job as a Postmaster (thus, he was seemingly in violation of the constitutional admonition that "no... person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States shall be appointed an Elector" [Article II, Section 1, clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution]). Because each house of Congress was controlled by a different Major Party, a baser purely political solution along Party lines ("to he who has the votes goes the victory") was not even possible. As a result, Congress hastily put together a bipartisan one-time-only 'Electoral Commission' to sort things out; although bipartisan in makeup, this Commission ended up with a majority of 1 for the Republicans and all disputes were ultimately decided, by Party line vote of the Commission, in favor of Hayes who, thereby, was eventually declared to have been elected President (Congress had required itself to accept the Commission's decisions in the enabling legislation that first set up this Commission). Also, in this Election of 1876, the legislature of the State of COLORADO "appointed" (and, by extension, also pledged) that State's Presidential Electors; all other States that participated in this Election "appointed" (thus, also pledged) their respective Electors via Popular Vote.

1948: re: State's Rights "Dixiecrat" Thurmond receiving 1 more Electoral Vote originally pledged to Democrat Truman, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

1956: re: 'Jones 1' at the expense of an Electoral Vote originally pledged to Democrat Stevenson, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

1960: 14 'Unpledged' Democratic Presidential Electors (6 from ALABAMA and 8 from MISSISSIPPI) were "appointed" (and, by extension, pledged) in this General Election: all 14 of these cast their presidential Electoral votes for Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia; re: Byrd receiving 1 more Electoral Vote originally pledged to Republican Nixon, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

1968: re: American Independent Wallace receiving 1 more Electoral Vote originally pledged to Republican Nixon, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

1972: re: 'Hospers [Libertarian] 1' at the expense of an Electoral Vote originally pledged to Republican Nixon, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

1976: re: 'Reagan 1' at the expense of an Electoral Vote originally pledged to Republican Ford, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

1988: re: 'Bentsen 1' at the expense of an Electoral Vote originally pledged to Democrat Dukakis, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

2000: re: 'not voting 1' at the expense of an Electoral Vote originally pledged to Democrat Gore, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

2004: re: 'Edwards 1' at the expense of an Electoral Vote originally pledged to Democrat Kerry, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.

2016: re: 'Powell 3; Sanders 1; Spotted Eagle 1' at the expense of 5 Electoral Votes originally pledged to Democrat Hillary Clinton and 'Kasich 1; Paul 1' at the expense of 2 Electoral Votes originally pledged to Republican Donald Trump, please see our page on so-called FAITHLESS ELECTORS.