Washington received 69 electoral votes to win the first election unopposed. At that time, only ten states had ratified the Constitution, and eight votes were not cast.
John Quincy Adams received 84 in the 1824 election when the votes were split four ways. His father, John Adams, received 71 (to Thomas Jefferson’s 68) to win the first contested election in 1796. Though there were four declared candidates in the 1860 election, Abraham Lincoln received an electoral vote majority with 180 votes. And even though the southern states did not cast electoral votes in 1864, Abraham Lincoln still received 212 (of 233 cast) to win the election easily.
Copyright © 2000 by Richard Warren Field