What was the closest presidential election in the United States?

markklein199

If you are talking about the closest presidential election in terms of the difference between the two candiates in the percentage of national votes cast, then the answer would be Nixon-Kennedy in 1960. JFK had 49.72 percent of the vote while Nixon had 49.55, representing a difference of .17 percentage points. This was a smaller margin in popular votes than the 2000 Bush-Gore election, but of course, the key difference is that Gore actually won the popular vote, but lost the election (same thing also happened to Samuel Tilden and Rutherford Hayes in the late 1876.) If you are just talking about electoral college votes, then, at least as a percentage of total electoral votes cast, it would be Bush-Gore 2004. Bush needed 270 to win and he got 271 compared to 266 for Gore, and, of course, the razor thin margin of votes in Florida meant that Bush only got to 271 by the skin of his teeth. Jan 20 05, 1:57 PM

MrsAce

Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied electoral votes in the election of 1800, 73 each. The vote was turned over to the House of Representatives where Jefferson won. Jan 20 05, 3:26 PM