List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin

The margin of victory in a U.S. presidential election would be the difference between the number of Electoral College votes garnered by the candidate with an absolute majority of electoral votes and the number received by the second place candidate. In such a situation, the House of Representatives would choose from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. For elections after the passage of the 12th Amendment, the runner-up will always have less than half of the electoral votes cast.

About List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin in brief

Summary List of United States presidential elections by Electoral College margin The margin of victory in a U.S. presidential election would be the difference between the number of Electoral College votes garnered by the candidate with an absolute majority of electoral votes and the number received by the second place candidate. In such a situation, the House of Representatives would choose from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. The table below is a list of United States presidential elections ordered by margin of defeat in the Electoral College vote. The election of 1848 appears closer, because Zachary Taylor won with a majority of only 18 votes, however, Nixon could have received as many as 269 votes above a majority, while Taylor could only have received 145 votes above the majority.

For elections after the passage of the 12th Amendment, the runner-up will always have less than half of the electoral votes cast, so the absolute margin of win is the difference of the winner’s votes and half the votes cast for the second-place candidate. The maximum possible value of the margin of winning occurs in the case in which each elector casts a vote for the winning candidate and the runner up gets no more than half the vote.