Alabama 1960

[coolface1572]

How exactly did people vote in Alabama in 1960? The media reported Kennedy as the winner of the state and gave him all 11 electoral votes without even mentioning the unpledged electors.

https://youtu.be/XtOuIqHi8ns?t=3702

[One Term Floridian]

Voters in AL actually voted 56%-42% for JFK in 1960, a fairly weak result for a Democrat in AL at the time. Electors, likely spurned by Kennedy’s unwillingness to uphold segregation, split their votes for JFK and Byrd 5-6

[TDAS04]

The state Democratic party nominated 5 electors pledged to the Kennedy/Johnson ticket, and 6 unpledged electors, who ultimately voted for Harry Byrd/Strom Thurmond.  Further complicating matters, Alabamians at the time voted for each individual elector, though it's extremely likely that the vast majority voters either selected all the Democratic electors or all the Nixon electors.  There are various ways of trying to figure it out, but the tally listed on atlas has the Democratic slate winning with 56% of the state's vote, and the Nixon slate taking 42%.

Interestingly, how you count the PV in the state impacts who won the PV nationally.  Typically the entire slate's vote is counted for Kennedy (I think), meaning JFK won the national PV by 0.2%.  However, you could just count 5/11 of the vote for Kennedy--considering it was 5 out of 11 pledged to him--and assign the other 6/11 to "unpledged".  Then Nixon wins the national PV but loses the election.

I think political scientists have a third, much more complicated, method of counting these votes.  I'm not really sure of it, but if IRC, it still ends up with a PV victory for JFK.

[coolface1572]

The state Democratic party nominated 5 electors pledged to the Kennedy/Johnson ticket, and 6 unpledged electors, who ultimately voted for Harry Byrd/Strom Thurmond.  Further complicating matters, Alabamians at the time voted for each individual elector, though it's extremely likely that the vast majority voters either selected all the Democratic electors or all the Nixon electors.  There are various ways of trying to figure it out, but the tally listed on atlas has the Democratic slate winning with 56% of the state's vote, and the Nixon slate taking 42%.

Interestingly, how you count the PV in the state impacts who won the PV nationally.  Typically the entire slate's vote is counted for Kennedy (I think), meaning JFK won the national PV by 0.2%.  However, you could just count 5/11 of the vote for Kennedy--considering it was 5 out of 11 pledged to him--and assign the other 6/11 to "unpledged".  Then Nixon wins the national PV but loses the election.

I think political scientists have a third, much more complicated, method of counting these votes.  I'm not really sure of it, but if IRC, it still ends up with a PV victory for JFK.

From what I can tell, Alabama didn't exactly require it's electors to pledge support to Kennedy, and people just picked members of the party.

https://images.slideplayer.com/13/3594295/slides/slide_14.jpg

[Calthrina950]

Voters in AL actually voted 56%-42% for JFK in 1960, a fairly weak result for a Democrat in AL at the time. Electors, likely spurned by Kennedy’s unwillingness to uphold segregation, split their votes for JFK and Byrd 5-6

Kennedy actually received a marginally smaller percentage of the popular vote in Alabama (56.19%) compared to Adlai Stevenson in 1956 (56.52%). Nixon, however, received a higher percentage (42.16%) than Eisenhower had (39.39%). Unpledged Electors received 4.09% in 1956, and most of that support went to Nixon four years later. Hence, Nixon lost the state by a smaller margin (14%) than Eisenhower had (18%). Democratic vote totals in Alabama never recovered after the Dixiecratic revolt in 1948, even though both Stevenson and Kennedy still received a higher percentage than Al Smith had in the anti-Catholicism tempest of 1928.

[One Term Floridian]

Voters in AL actually voted 56%-42% for JFK in 1960, a fairly weak result for a Democrat in AL at the time. Electors, likely spurned by Kennedy’s unwillingness to uphold segregation, split their votes for JFK and Byrd 5-6

Kennedy actually received a marginally smaller percentage of the popular vote in Alabama (56.19%) compared to Adlai Stevenson in 1956 (56.52%). Nixon, however, received a higher percentage (42.16%) than Eisenhower had (39.39%). Unpledged Electors received 4.09% in 1956, and most of that support went to Nixon four years later. Hence, Nixon lost the state by a smaller margin (14%) than Eisenhower had (18%). Democratic vote totals in Alabama never recovered after the Dixiecratic revolt in 1948, even though both Stevenson and Kennedy still received a higher percentage than Al Smith had in the anti-Catholicism tempest of 1928.

Yeah they didn’t really see the National Democratic Party the same way after that. Even Carter, running as a perfect fit for the region in 76, got similar numbers.