Retrospective US Electoral College Vote: 1800

[Nerdlinger]

PLEASE VOTE FOR TWO (2) CANDIDATES! NO MORE, NO LESS! Anyone who votes for only 1 candidate or who votes for more than 2 candidates will have their vote(s) disqualified. Don't make me regret running multiple-choice polls, folks.

This is a short, 4-week side project which will simulate the voting by the Electoral College for the 4 elections from 1789-1800. This is not meant to replace the results of the original Retrospective US Presidential Elections for those years, but rather to accompany them. All of the polls in this project so far have been meant to simulate the popular vote, which I then translated into the electoral vote to reflect the same results. However, the popular vote didn't count for much in those early days. So I wanted to offer AH.com members the chance to cast two votes in each of these 4 elections instead of one, just as an elector would have done back then. (One catch is that, since this is pre-12th Amendment, you can't distinguish between presidential votes and VP votes, but that's fine for our purposes because you can't do that in a poll here either.)

If we don't get a majority in any of these 4 elections, then a final election will be held the following week to simulate the House vote. Please note that I will not be running Electoral College polls for any other elections than these 4, except if there's a tie in the voting or if Greeley wins in 1872.

Here are the links to the 1868 and 1980 elections.

[QuoProQuid]

Jefferson is a hypocrite, a coward and nearly destroyed the US economy several times over. Although Adams and the Federalists have their faults, most notably the Alien and Sedition Acts, I find them far less reprehensible that Jefferson. He is a brilliant, but that does not necessarily translate into good politics.

Also, I would rather have a President that is capable of speaking in public.

[Paul V McNutt]

Hey Declaration of Independence and Louisiana Purchase, enough said.

[QuoProQuid]

Originally Posted by Paul V McNutt

Hey Declaration of Independence and Louisiana Purchase, enough said.

Except, Jefferson was one of the least likely people to have accepted the offer. If anyone were to refuse it, it would have been him. He agonized over the decision.

Also, the Declaration is really close to some of the writings of John Locke, particularly Concerning Civil Government. There's a couple passages that are almost word for word. I'm not denying its an important document but it is less original than some think.

Let's leave Jefferson at Monticello, where he can build a better swivel chair. I like swivel chairs...

[Wendell]

John Adams for me.

[Dean501]

President Adams and future President Pinckney.

[XNM]

Aaron Burr and...meh. I voted for Adams for some reason.

[Justin Green]

The Lousiana purchase was definately a Federalist play. The fact Jefferson took it is amazing, considering the expansion of power to the Federal goverment it signified and created.

Jefferson is also guilty of gutting the military, especially the Navy that was being built up under Adams. Then his likeminded succesor continued his inept foreign policy and bumbled into the war with the British with a military sorely lacking.

[Turquoise Blue]

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Lets kick Adams back down to the Vice-Presidency for the Alien and Sedition Acts!

[Snowstalker]

I'm surprised that this forum favors the George W. Bush (corporatist, blatantly violating civil liberties) of the 18th century. Jefferson was a flip-flopper, but the Alien and Sedition Acts were the issue of the day.

[jpj1421]

I suppose the difference is that Adams successfully brought his war to a close. Also the Federalists are awesome.

[Justin Green]

I wonder how another 4 years with Adams as President and Jefferson as vice-president would look. When they amend the constituition about the electoral college, perhaps they make bigger changes than they did in OTL.

Adams wins the electoral college but Jefferson wins the popular vote clearly in the states that vote. I'm wondering if Jefferson and his lackies in the presumably D-R controlled congress might decide to give the President of the Senate a permanent vote, in case of a tie, the President of the Senate vote counts for two votes.

Jefferson would be confident in winning the next election, and when hes potus, he wont have to worry about his chief rival leading his senate party in opposing him. In the meantime it gives Jefferson actual power in one branch of the government while he waits.

[TNF]

Adams and Pinckney!

Jefferson was an awful president and his ideological views gave rise to modern American conservatism. He was an anti-modernist that longed for a world dominated by yeoman farmers and (let's not whitewash history here) slaveowners. He also opposed just about every policy that put America on the road to being able to compete with the British and other European empires (see: Jefferson's opposition to tariffs, the national bank, etc)

The Alien and Sedition Acts are unfortunate, but Jefferson's solution (nullification) was ultimately a poisonous one that gave us the 'state's rights' ideology of the American Right that has watered down, hindered, or actively opposed progress throughout American history.

[Premier Taylerov]

Nice to see a close contest, for once!

[Nerdlinger]

Originally Posted by Premier Taylerov

Nice to see a close contest, for once!

We've had plenty of close contests. Admittedly, plenty of landslides too.

[Stolengood]

C'mon, Aaron! Womens' rights!

(Oh, and Pickney, I guess.)

[metastasis_d]

Very interesting election.

[Nerdlinger]

Originally Posted by metastasis_d

Very interesting election.

And even if Adams wins, we could still see a tie between Jefferson and Pinckney for second. Then I'd hold a runoff to simulate the Senate election to decide the VP.

[Stolengood]

Come on, Burr; 20 MORE VOTES!!!

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by Nerdlinger

And even if Adams wins, we could still see a tie between Jefferson and Pinckney for second. Then I'd hold a runoff to simulate the Senate election to decide the VP.

Sounds like a plan.