Colonel William A. Phillips

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The 1848 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 7, 1848, as part of the 1848 United States presidential election. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Massachusetts voted for the Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor, over Democratic candidate Lewis Cass and Free Soil candidate former president Martin Van Buren. Taylor won the state by a margin of 19.1%.

With 28.45% of the popular vote, Massachusetts would prove to by Van Buren's second strongest state in the country after neighboring Vermont.[2]

Because no candidate received 50% of the vote, the choice of electors formally reverted to the state legislature, in accordance with the provisions of Massachusetts state law of the time. Ultimately this did not change the outcome since the Whigs controlled the legislature, which duly confirmed the choice of electors pledged to the clear plurality winner. Even if the Massachusetts legislature had chosen someone else, Taylor would have still had enough electoral votes (151, five more than a bare majority) to win the presidency.

Results

1848 United States presidential election in Massachusetts[3]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Whig Zachary Taylor of Louisiana Millard Fillmore of New York 61,072 45.32% 12 100.00%
Free Soil Martin Van Buren of New York Charles Francis Adams, Sr. of Massachusetts 38,333 28.45% 0 0.00%
Democratic Lewis Cass of Michigan William O. Butler of Kentucky 35,281 26.18% 0 0.00%
N/A Others Others 62 0.05% 0 0.00%
Total 134,748 100.00% 12 100.00%

See also

References

  1. ^ Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.
  2. ^ "1848 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  3. ^ "1848 Presidential General Election Results - Massachusetts". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.