1896 United States presidential election in California

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The 1896 United States presidential election in California took place on November 3, 1896, as part of the 1896 United States presidential election. State voters chose nine representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

California narrowly voted for the Republican nominee, Ohio Governor William McKinley, over the Democratic nominee, former Nebraska representative William Jennings Bryan. McKinley won the state by a narrow margin of 0.65%.

Eight of the state's electoral votes were awarded to McKinley, while one was awarded to Bryan. This was the third occasion in which California's electoral vote was split, rather than being awarded to a single candidate. The previous two occasions were in 1880 and 1892. Such a split would only subsequently occur in California one more time (in 1912).^[1]

Bryan would lose California to McKinley again four years later and would later lose the state again in 1908 to William Howard Taft.

Results

General Election Results^[2]
Party		Pledged to	Elector	Votes
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Duncan E. McKinley	146,688
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Irving M. Scott	146,133
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Claus Spreckels	145,886
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Howell A. Powell	145,812
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Julius M. Walling	145,631
	Republican Party	William McKinley	George M. Francis	145,590
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Joseph S. Spear Jr.	145,587
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Elwood Cooper	145,474
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	J. W. Martin	144,766^[a]
	Republican Party	William McKinley	Thomas Flint	144,618
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	J. V. Webster	144,185^[b]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	William Craig	144,113^[c]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	Jo Hamilton	143,959^[d]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	D. T. Fowler	143,913^[e]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	S. I. Allard	143,874^[f]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	M. R. Merritt	143,725^[g]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	C. W. Thresher	143,664^[h]
	Democratic Party & People's Party	William Jennings Bryan	Daniel McKay	143,024^[i]
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	W. R. Goodwin	2,573
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	B. F. Taylor	2,562
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	Stephen Bowers	2,500
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	Elam Biggs	2,491
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	Dr. P. McCargar	2,481
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	Robert Thompson	2,480
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	M. J. Hall	2,446
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	R. H. Young	2,445
	Prohibition Party	Joshua Levering	H. H. Luse	2,444
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	James K. O'Brien	2,006
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	Clay W. Taylor	1,730
	Socialist Labor Party	Charles H. Matchett	Emil Liess	1,611
	Socialist Labor Party	Charles H. Matchett	Lemuel D. Biddle	1,564
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	John Rosenfeld	1,563
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	Thomas B. Bond	1,532
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	Jeremiah Lynch	1,529
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	Charles Anderson	1,510
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	John Roth	1,476
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	Robert Y. Hayne	1,472
	National Democratic Party	John M. Palmer	L. B. Hakes	1,411
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	John Bidwell	1,047
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	William Kelly	947
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	Henry French	931
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	R. F. Burns	922
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	F. W. Hooper	896
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	J. M. Glass	890
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	W. H. Bone	860
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	F. Hilton	855
	National Party	Charles E. Bentley	Jesse Yarnell	834
	Write-in		Scattering	4
Votes cast^[j]				298,419

Results by county

County	William McKinley Republican		William Jennings Bryan Democratic & People's		Joshua Levering Prohibition		John M. Palmer National Democratic		Charles H. Matchett Socialist Labor		Charles E. Bentley National		Scattering Write-in		Margin		Total votes cast^[k]
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast^[k]
Alameda	13,429	60.43%	8,394	37.77%	132	0.59%	111	0.50%	101	0.45%	56	0.25%	0	0.00%	5.035	22.66%	22,223
Alpine	40	49.38%	39	48.15%	1	1.23%	1	1.23%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	1	1.23%	81
Amador	1,144	44.39%	1,398	54.25%	20	0.78%	4	0.16%	2	0.08%	9	0.35%	0	0.00%	-254	-9.86%	2,577
Butte	2,075	48.31%	2,120	49.36%	20	0.47%	42	0.98%	6	0.14%	32	0.75%	0	0.00%	-45	-1.05%	4,295
Calaveras	1,541	49.92%	1,518	49.17%	5	0.16%	11	0.36%	7	0.23%	5	0.16%	0	0.00%	23	0.75%	3,087
Colusa	581	30.86%	1,250	66.38%	10	0.53%	31	1.65%	9	0.48%	2	0.11%	0	0.00%	-689	-35.53%	1,883
Contra Costa	1,834	56.10%	1,381	42.25%	14	0.43%	15	0.46%	4	0.12%	21	0.64%	0	0.00%	453	13.86%	3,269
Del Norte	345	49.50%	334	47.92%	7	1.00%	9	1.29%	2	0.29%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	11	1.58%	697
El Dorado	1,130	39.54%	1,674	58.57%	16	0.56%	14	0.49%	7	0.24%	17	0.59%	0	0.00%	-544	-19.03%	2,858
Fresno	2,686	40.22%	3,790	56.75%	85	1.27%	47	0.70%	39	0.58%	12	0.48%	0	0.00%	-1,104	-16.53%	6,679
Glenn	479	36.54%	825	62.93%	1	0.08%	2	0.15%	2	0.15%	2	0.15%	0	0.00%	-346	-26.39%	1,311
Humboldt	3,142	55.37%	2,465	43.44%	32	0.56%	19	0.33%	8	0.14%	9	0.16%	0	0.00%	677	11.93%	5,675
Inyo	286	34.01%	532	63.26%	10	1.19%	6	0.71%	2	0.24%	5	0.59%	0	0.00%	-246	-29.25%	841
Kern	1,430	43.80%	1,763	54.00%	28	0.86%	26	0.80%	12	0.37%	6	0.18%	0	0.00%	-333	-10.20%	3,265
Kings	673	43.06%	862	55.15%	13	0.83%	6	0.38%	2	0.13%	6	0.38%	1	0.06%	-189	-12.09%	1,563
Lake	546	38.00%	854	59.43%	20	1.39%	10	0.70%	0	0.14%	5	0.35%	0	0.00%	-308	-21.43%	1,437
Lassen	420	43.66%	528	54.89%	3	0.31%	5	0.52%	3	0.31%	3	0.31%	0	0.00%	-108	-11.23%	962
Los Angeles	16,891	49.62%	16,043	47.13%	787	2.31%	131	0.38%	108	0.32%	82	0.24%	0	0.00%	848	2.49%	34,042
Madera	452	37.32%	739	61.02%	13	1.07%	4	0.33%	1	0.08%	2	0.17%	0	0.00%	-287	-23.70%	1,211
Marin	1,448	61.41%	874	37.07%	3	0.13%	7	0.30%	21	0.89%	5	0.21%	0	0.00%	574	24.34%	2,358
Mariposa	563	39.68%	829	58.42%	7	0.49%	18	1.27%	0	0.00%	2	0.14%	0	0.00%	-266	-18.75%	1,419
Mendocino	2,093	48.92%	2,120	49.56%	24	0.56%	28	0.65%	3	0.07%	10	0.23%	0	0.00%	-27	-0.63%	4,278
Merced	653	36.24%	1,117	61.99%	15	0.83%	5	0.28%	4	0.22%	8	0.44%	0	0.00%	-464	-25.75%	1,802
Modoc	300	33.00%	588	64.69%	9	0.99%	7	0.77%	4	0.44%	1	0.11%	0	0.00%	-288	-31.68%	909
Mono	259	44.27%	315	53.85%	1	0.17%	8	1.37%	1	0.17%	1	0.17%	0	0.00%	-56	-9.57%	585
Monterey	1,878	45.82%	2,149	52.43%	21	0.51%	20	0.49%	11	0.27%	20	0.49%	0	0.00%	-271	-6.61%	4,099
Napa	2,032	57.03%	1,472	41.31%	23	0.65%	18	0.51%	8	0.22%	9	0.25%	1	0.03%	560	15.72%	3,563
Nevada	1,985	44.76%	2,360	53.21%	32	0.72%	26	0.59%	10	0.23%	22	0.50%	0	0.00%	-375	-8.46%	4,435
Orange	1,932	51.06%	1,712	45.24%	99	2.62%	24	0.63%	2	0.05%	15	0.40%	0	0.00%	220	5.81%	3,784
Placer	1,890	51.41%	1,721	46.82%	8	0.22%	14	0.38%	9	0.24%	34	0.92%	0	0.00%	169	4.60%	3,676
Plumas	678	53.47%	575	45.35%	7	0.55%	6	0.47%	0	0.00%	2	0.16%	0	0.00%	103	8.12%	1,268
Riverside	2,063	53.06%	1,684	43.31%	112	2.88%	18	0.46%	4	0.10%	7	0.18%	0	0.00%	379	9.75%	3,888
Sacramento	4,600	47.68%	4,831	50.07%	49	0.51%	71	0.74%	58	0.60%	39	0.40%	0	0.00%	-231	-2.39%	9,648
San Benito	729	42.48%	956	55.71%	7	0.41%	8	0.47%	6	0.35%	10	0.58%	0	0.00%	-227	-13.23%	1,716
San Bernardino	2,818	48.54%	2,740	47.20%	188	3.24%	26	0.45%	12	0.21%	21	0.36%	0	0.00%	78	1.34%	5,805
San Diego	3,631	46.86%	3,908	50.44%	96	1.24%	23	0.30%	71	0.92%	19	0.25%	0	0.00%	-277	-3.58%	7,748
San Francisco	31,041	49.20%	30,649	48.58%	109	0.17%	320	0.51%	784	1.24%	183	0.29%	0	0.00%	392	0.62%	63,086
San Joaquin	3,500	48.83%	3,500	48.83%	54	0.75%	46	0.64%	31	0.43%	36	0.50%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	7,167
San Luis Obispo	1,671	43.74%	2,056	53.82%	39	1.02%	22	0.58%	8	0.21%	24	0.63%	0	0.00%	-385	10.08%	3,820
San Mateo	1,607	61.10%	987	37.53%	14	0.53%	12	0.46%	8	0.30%	2	0.08%	0	0.00%	620	23.57%	2,630
Santa Barbara	2,004	49.48%	1,916	47.31%	60	1.48%	41	1.01%	20	0.49%	9	0.22%	0	0.00%	88	2.17%	4,050
Santa Clara	6,315	53.51%	5,191	43.99%	68	0.58%	41	0.35%	82	0.69%	104	0.88%	0	0.00%	1,124	9.52%	11,801
Santa Cruz	1,969	48.24%	1,960	48.02%	46	1.13%	56	1.37%	23	0.56%	28	0.69%	0	0.00%	9	0.22%	4,082
Shasta	1,210	37.55%	1,936	60.09%	20	0.62%	38	1.18%	9	0.28%	9	0.28%	0	0.00%	-726	-22.53%	3,222
Sierra	707	56.61%	527	42.19%	6	0.48%	6	0.48%	0	0.00%	3	0.24%	0	0.00%	180	14.41%	1,249
Siskiyou	1,473	44.98%	1,724	52.64%	7	0.21%	37	1.13%	6	0.18%	26	0.79%	2	0.06%	-251	-7.66%	3,275
Solano	2,702	53.19%	2,284	44.96%	27	0.53%	44	0.87%	10	0.20%	13	0.26%	0	0.00%	418	8.23%	5,080
Sonoma	4,053	51.86%	3,595	46.00%	28	0.36%	84	1.07%	31	0.40%	25	0.32%	0	0.00%	458	5.86%	7,816
Stanislaus	1,007	40.92%	1,398	56.81%	14	0.57%	22	0.89%	1	0.04%	19	0.77%	0	0.00%	-391	-15.89%	2,461
Sutter	796	51.89%	713	46.48%	12	0.78%	11	0.72%	0	0.00%	2	0.13%	0	0.00%	83	5.41%	1,534
Tehama	969	45.39%	1,135	53.16%	11	0.52%	8	0.37%	2	0.09%	10	0.47%	0	0.00%	-166	-7.78%	2,135
Trinity	502	46.44%	545	50.42%	4	0.37%	26	2.41%	2	0.19%	2	0.19%	0	0.00%	-43	-3.98%	1,081
Tulare	1,410	33.80%	2,673	64.07%	35	0.84%	10	0.24%	31	0.74%	13	0.31%	0	0.00%	-1,263	-30.27%	4,172
Tuolumne	834	38.06%	1,308	59.70%	24	1.10%	16	0.73%	5	0.23%	4	0.18%	0	0.00%	-474	-21.63%	2,191
Ventura	1,533	50.41%	1,465	47.55%	35	1.14%	14	0.45%	9	0.29%	5	0.16%	0	0.00%	88	2.86%	3,081
Yolo	1,485	44.84%	1,753	52.93%	32	0.97%	33	1.00%	4	0.12%	5	0.15%	0	0.00%	-268	-8.09%	3,312
Yuba	1,204	53.82%	991	44.30%	10	0.45%	22	0.98%	4	0.18%	6	0.27%	0	0.00%	213	9.52%	2,237
Total	146,688	49.16%	144,766	48.51%	2,573	0.86%	1,730	0.58%	1,611	0.54%	1,047	0.35%	4	0.00%	1,922	0.64%	298,419

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Notes

^ 123,143 on the Democratic ticket and 21,623 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,451 on the Democratic ticket and 21,734 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,507 on the Democratic ticket and 21,606 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,333 on the Democratic ticket and 21,626 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,330 on the Democratic ticket and 21,583 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,289 on the Democratic ticket and 21,585 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,208 on the Democratic ticket and 21,517 on the Populist ticket
^ 122,245 on the Democratic ticket and 21,419 on the Populist ticket
^ 121,457 on the Democratic ticket and 21,567 on the Populist ticket
^ Based on totals for highest elector on each ticket
^ Based on the highest elector on each ticket

References

^ "DIVIDED ELECTORAL VOTES". Newspapers.com. The Boston Globe. November 11, 1912. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
^ Statement of the Vote of California at the General Election, Held November 3, 1896. Sacramento, California. p. 3. Retrieved July 4, 2024.

[3] 123,143 on the Democratic ticket and 21,623 on the Populist ticket

[4] 122,451 on the Democratic ticket and 21,734 on the Populist ticket

[5] 122,507 on the Democratic ticket and 21,606 on the Populist ticket

[6] 122,333 on the Democratic ticket and 21,626 on the Populist ticket

[7] 122,330 on the Democratic ticket and 21,583 on the Populist ticket

[8] 122,289 on the Democratic ticket and 21,585 on the Populist ticket

[9] 122,208 on the Democratic ticket and 21,517 on the Populist ticket

[10] 122,245 on the Democratic ticket and 21,419 on the Populist ticket

[11] 121,457 on the Democratic ticket and 21,567 on the Populist ticket

[12] Based on totals for highest elector on each ticket

[13] Based on the highest elector on each ticket

[1] "DIVIDED ELECTORAL VOTES". Newspapers.com. The Boston Globe. November 11, 1912. Retrieved June 1, 2021.

[2] Statement of the Vote of California at the General Election, Held November 3, 1896. Sacramento, California. p. 3. Retrieved July 4, 2024.

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