Massachusetts for Palin?

The Boston Globe ^ | August 1, 2010 | Jeff Jacoby

[JLS]

“Rarely has it happened that the popular vote winner lost in the electoral college. In 50+ Presidential elections it has happened only twice to the best of my knowledge — 1876, Hayes v Tilden, and 2000, Bush v Gore.”

Well there is 1960, Kennedy v. Nixon also. Additionally, it is not clear there was a final national count in 2000 to know who won it.

[tom h]

JLS, now I’m a bit of an American history buff and I’m wondering if you really know the details of why JFK did not win a majority of popular votes. Because it’s true but only by a technicality. Do you know that story?

In case you don’t, here’s the facts:

Kennedy’s popular vote total was 0.17%, or 112,000 votes out of 68 million cast. Just about any source will use these figures.

But the truth is that some of Kennedy is routinely “awarded” votes in the state of Alabama that were not intended for him. At the time, voters in Alabama voted for electors, not presidential candidates, and Kennedy’s tally includes the highest vote total for an Alabama elector even though almost half of the electors refused to vote for him when the electoral college convened. So, a more accurate accounting would give Kennedy fewer votes and a majority of popular votes to Nixon.

It’s hard to find detail about this but the NYT has a good summary:

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/16/opinion/the-slippery-statistics-of-the-popular-vote.html