On November 5, 2024, the United States officially enters Election Day, and sooner or later, the nation will choose the next occupant of the White House from among two candidates: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. The 2024 election is characterized by fierce competition, “closer than ever before,” as Trump and his allies—who have claimed that his defeat in 2020 was due to fraud—have spent months preparing the groundwork to continue contesting the results if they lose.
It is not too vague to suggest that troubles and controversies may arise after the 2024 election results are announced state by state, especially in the seven battleground states that are crucial for both candidates.
The two candidates for the 47th U.S. presidency: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Here is an overview of four previous U.S. elections that resulted in unclear or contentious outcomes.
The Election of 1800: House Votes 36 Times to Break the Deadlock
The election of 1800 ended in a tie. According to the regulations, the U.S. Constitution granted the House of Representatives the authority to choose the next president. However, neither candidate, Thomas Jefferson nor Aaron Burr, was able to secure the support of more than 8 out of 16 states at that time.
Members of the House voted 35 times within the span of a week, but no candidate gained a majority. Fortunately, on the 36th vote, Jefferson won in 10 states, and the House officially awarded him the presidency.
The Election of 1824: A Majority of Electoral Votes Does Not Guarantee Victory
Andrew Jackson received both the highest popular vote and the most electoral votes among four presidential candidates but did not secure the necessary 131 electoral votes required for victory.
This outcome led to a vote in the House of Representatives. However, the president elected was John Quincy Adams, who narrowly defeated the other three opponents.
The Election of 1876: The Most Controversial in History
The election of 1876 is regarded as the most controversial in U.S. history, featuring a contest between Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes and Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden.
Tilden won the popular vote by 250,000 votes. However, there were 20 disputed electoral votes, meaning neither Tilden nor Hayes held a majority of the electoral votes. Since Tilden secured 184 electoral votes, just one shy of a majority, Hayes needed to win all the disputed electoral votes to succeed.
Against Tilden’s wishes, Congress appointed a bipartisan Electoral Commission to resolve the dispute. The Republican Party, having one “foot” in the Commission, decided in a series of party-line rulings that Hayes had won all the disputed electoral votes. The Democrats only accepted the result after the Republicans agreed to withdraw remaining U.S. troops from the South following the Civil War. Rutherford B. Hayes subsequently became the next president of the United States.
The Election of 2000: Recount in Florida
In the final days, the race between Republican candidate George W. Bush and Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore was believed to be decided by Florida’s 25 electoral votes.
Once voting concluded in Florida, the media declared Al Gore the winner in the state. However, the vote totals showed Bush leading Gore by several thousand votes. Gore’s campaign requested a hand recount in Florida’s four largest counties, initiating a lengthy process of reviewing ballots.
The results were announced three weeks later, with Florida declaring Bush the winner by 537 votes. Al Gore contested this, and the state Supreme Court ordered the recount of thousands of ballots that had been rejected by voting machines for not being fully punched.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a halt to the recount on December 12, just six days before the Electoral College convened, ruling that the U.S. Constitution had been violated due to the different voting standards applied in various counties.
This court ruling compelled Al Gore to concede the election results to prevent the country from descending into “partisan bickering.”
