1960 Presidential results if no unpledged elector slates in the South

[rob in cal]

  Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana had either unpledged or anti-Kennedy slates of electors on the ballot in those states. There is of course the great Alabama controversy of awarding Kennedy the lions share of the popular vote (318k) when lots of Democrat voters chose anti Kennedy electors. Things are are clearer in Mississippi and Louisiana where votes for unpledged electors were clearly separated from Kennedy's vote count.
But what if none of these elector slates ran. Obviously vote totals for both Nixon and Kennedy go up, with lots of the 169k of unpledged elector votes in Louisiana headed his way as well as a good share of the 116k in Mississippi. Plus, more clarity in Alabama. Can the case be made that Nixon emerges out of all this netting significantly more than Kennedy, with Kennedy no longer credited with 318k out of Alabama (a fair amount of those 318k voters also voted for anti Kennedy electors as well), and Nixon likely taking a majority of the 285k votes that went for non Kennedy non Nixon slates in the other two states.
   I'm intrested in this because this would possibly have led to a Nixon popular vote victory. I wonder if Nixon pondered this much as well, and if it might have led him to support abolition of the EC which i believe he did once he was President.

[Wrenchmob]

Kennedy would have definitely still won Louisiana. Even if Nixon won a strong majority of the unpledged voters.

Mississippi probably would have gone to Kennedy with a county map similar to 1952, (with an east democratic/west republican divide) though it would have been closer.

Alabama is a tough one, since the compromise ticket definitely helped the democrats, but I guess I would say Kennedy still wins by around 10%. There would have been some defectors, but not nearly enough to flip the state. However, I think there would be a slight increase in votes for the National State's Rights party among single issue Jim Crow defectors.

[rob in cal]

Yeah I think Kennedy takes all three, (Louisiana clearly as he won a majority as it was), but I do think that  when the dust settled, Nixon erases the small 112 k Kennedy national popular vote lead or comes really close.