One through Forty-Two or Forty-Three

With a new review still about another week off, here’s a quiz. The theme is the college that nobody that graduates from, the Electoral College? I’ve asked these questions of other people and they were on Twitter, but I didn’t get a lot of guesses. So I’ll post them here and get few guesses as well.

1. Who is the only President to receive electoral votes in two different elections and was considered to be a representative of two different states? (The basis for this is how the candidate’s name was styled by the National Archives, which keeps all the Electoral College ballots. That will be the guideline for all of the questions.)

2. Which state’s candidates have received the most electoral votes, yet has never had anyone elected?

3. Which is the only one of the original 13 states to never have one of its residents receive an electoral vote for either President or Vice President?

4. What is the largest state (in terms of current population) to never have anyone from there receive an electoral vote for either President or Vice President?

5. Which state’s residents have accumulated the most electoral votes for Vice President since 1804 (the first time Vice Presidents were chosen separately)?

6. Which state’s residents have accumulated the most electoral votes for President since 1789?

7. In 2004, John Edwards received 1 electoral vote for President and 252 for Vice President as one Minnesota elector filled out a ballot incorrectly? Prior to that, who were the last people to receive electoral votes for both President and Vice President in the same election? (It happened in the same election.)

8. What’s the only state to have one of its residents receive electoral votes for President and/or Vice President in more than one election and never see that person lose?

You can post your answers in the comments. I’ll post the answers later.

Answers

1. Richard Nixon ran for Vice President in 1952 and 1956 and President in 1960 as a Californian. But, after losing to Pat Brown in the California governor’s race in 1962, he moved to New York. In 1968 and 1972, he was identified as a New Yorker and considered that his permanent residence.

2. Nebraska, thanks to William Jennings Bryan’s three unsuccessful runs for the Presidency, picked up 493 electoral votes. Although the question didn’t specify this, I meant to say President or Vice President, which would have eliminated choices Kentucky (VPs Breckinridge and Barkley) and Kansas (VP Curtis.) Bryan’s younger brother, Charles, picked up an additional 136 electoral votes for Vice President in 1924. That’s 629 total votes. Counting both Pres and VP, Connecticut is second at 267, 266 of the votes for Joseph Lieberman. Arizona has 253.

3. Rhode Island is indeed the “Original 13″ state to never have a nominee receive an electoral vote of any kind. And we’re likely better off for that. Connecticut had received just one electoral vote, back in 1796 for Oliver Ellsworth, until Joe Lieberman received 266 votes for Vice President in 2004.

4. Florida, everybody’s favorite swing state, has never had a nominee. Washington is the second most populous state to not have a nominee.

5. Indiana is the “Cradle of the Vice Presidency.” It has produced Schuyler Colfax (Grant’s first term), Thomas Hendricks (Cleveland’s first term and a prior nominee), Charles Fairbanks (Theodore Roosevelt), Thomas Marshall (all eight years under Woodrow Wilson), and Dan Quayle. It is a grand total of 3055 electoral votes for VP, nosing out New York at 2954. Texas is third at 2496.

6. New York wins this in a landslide with 6559 votes. The elections of 1904 (T. Roosevelt vs. Parker), 1940 (F. Roosevelt vs. Wilkie) and 1944 (F. Roosevelt vs. Dewey) matched up New Yorkers. Ohio is a distant second at 1952 votes.

7. In 1988, one elector in West Virginia voted for Lloyd Bentsen for President and Michael Dukakis for VP. In 1808, Vice President George Clinton received 6 electoral votes for President (which he supposedly campaigned for), and in 1824, Andrew Jackson received 13 votes for VP in addition to his 99 Presidential votes. Of course, he didn’t win either race that year.

8. Wyoming, in the person of Vice President Dick Cheney, is 2-0 in elections.