1916 United States presidential election in California

The 1916 United States presidential election in California took place on November 7, 1916 as part of the 1916 United States presidential election. State voters chose 13 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1916 United States presidential election in California

November 7, 1916
Turnout	79.57% (of registered voters) 7.89 pp 57.91% (of eligible voters) 12.80 pp [1]
Nominee Woodrow Wilson Charles Evans Hughes Party Democratic Republican Home state New Jersey New York Running mate Thomas R. Marshall Charles W. Fairbanks Electoral vote 13 0 Popular vote 466,289 462,516 Percentage 46.65% 46.27%
County Results Wilson   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Hughes   40–50%   50–60%   70–80%
President before election Woodrow Wilson Democratic Elected President Woodrow Wilson Democratic

California narrowly voted for the Democratic incumbent, Woodrow Wilson, over the Republican nominee, Associate Justice Charles Evans Hughes.

Although very close, this was not as close as the previous election or the equally critical 1892 election in the Golden State, and was only the third-closest state in a thrilling election behind New Hampshire and Minnesota. Following on from breaking half-a-dozen county droughts in 1912, Wilson became the first Democrat to carry Santa Barbara County and Plumas County since Stephen A. Douglas in 1860, and the first to carry the counties of Santa Cruz and Placer since James Buchanan in 1856.[2] Had Hughes won California, he would have won the election despite losing the popular vote. This is the last election in which a Republican candidate carried Los Angeles County but failed to carry the state of California. This is also the most recent election when California would decide the overall winner of a presidential election, despite routinely having among the highest, or highest amount of electoral votes after the next reapportionment following the 1930 Census.

Results

1916 United States presidential election in California[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Woodrow Wilson	466,289	46.65%	13
	Republican	Charles Evans Hughes	462,516	46.27%	0
	Socialist	Allan L. Benson	42,898	4.29%	0
	Prohibition	J. Franklin Hanley	27,713	2.77%	0
	No party	Write-ins	187	0.02%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			999,603	100.00%	13
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Thomas Woodrow Wilson Democratic		Charles Evans Hughes Republican		Allan Louis Benson Socialist		James Franklin Hanly Prohibition		Various candidates Write-ins		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Colusa	62.89%	1,998	31.82%	1,011	3.87%	123	1.42%	45			31.07%	987
Mariposa	58.24%	802	32.75%	451	6.90%	95	2.11%	29			25.49%	351
Kern	59.86%	9,566	35.11%	5,611	3.46%	553	1.57%	251			24.75%	3,955
Placer	58.28%	3,375	33.74%	1,954	5.42%	314	2.56%	148			24.54%	1,421
Siskiyou	57.15%	3,447	34.13%	2,059	6.91%	417	1.81%	109			23.01%	1,388
Sierra	58.35%	594	35.36%	360	5.40%	55	0.88%	9			22.99%	234
El Dorado	57.67%	1,755	35.10%	1,068	6.15%	187	1.08%	33			22.58%	687
Solano	58.37%	5,678	36.35%	3,536	3.31%	322	1.97%	192			22.02%	2,142
Modoc	58.25%	1,222	36.61%	768	3.77%	79	1.38%	29			21.64%	454
Nevada	56.58%	2,548	35.22%	1,586	6.20%	279	2.00%	90			21.36%	962
Plumas	56.50%	1,025	36.55%	663	5.62%	102	1.32%	24			19.96%	362
Trinity	54.81%	661	35.16%	424	8.62%	104	1.41%	17			19.65%	237
Lassen	55.75%	1,323	36.96%	877	6.03%	143	1.26%	30			18.79%	446
Tuolumne	54.21%	1,584	36.17%	1,057	8.11%	237	1.51%	44			18.04%	527
Amador	56.28%	1,766	38.53%	1,209	3.98%	125	1.21%	38			17.75%	557
San Joaquin	55.44%	11,454	38.05%	7,861	3.82%	789	2.70%	557			17.39%	3,593
Lake	52.13%	1,164	35.42%	791	8.15%	182	4.30%	96			16.70%	373
Tehama	52.92%	2,534	36.32%	1,739	6.98%	334	3.78%	181			16.60%	795
Madera	54.01%	1,880	38.01%	1,323	5.26%	183	2.56%	89	0.17%	6	16.00%	557
Shasta	52.39%	2,828	37.20%	2,008	8.32%	449	2.09%	113			15.19%	820
Sacramento	54.63%	14,538	40.19%	10,696	3.13%	833	2.05%	546			14.44%	3,842
Glenn	53.87%	1,797	40.23%	1,342	3.03%	101	2.82%	94	0.06%	2	13.64%	455
Yuba	54.49%	1,980	42.10%	1,530	2.56%	93	0.85%	31			12.38%	450
Kings	51.86%	2,905	39.65%	2,221	4.57%	256	3.93%	220			12.21%	684
Calaveras	53.06%	1,524	40.91%	1,175	4.70%	135	1.32%	38			12.15%	349
Sutter	53.52%	1,543	42.00%	1,211	2.77%	80	1.70%	49			11.52%	332
Yolo	53.12%	2,922	42.43%	2,334	3.04%	167	1.42%	78			10.69%	588
San Francisco	52.45%	78,225	42.30%	63,093	4.31%	6,423	0.94%	1,404	0.00%	7	10.15%	15,132
San Luis Obispo	49.85%	3,539	40.20%	2,854	7.71%	547	2.24%	159			9.65%	685
Merced	50.36%	2,637	40.72%	2,132	5.44%	285	3.48%	182			9.64%	505
Butte	50.55%	4,888	40.91%	3,956	4.51%	436	4.02%	389			9.64%	932
Stanislaus	46.98%	5,490	37.66%	4,401	6.24%	729	9.13%	1,067			9.32%	1,089
Fresno	49.95%	14,241	41.07%	11,707	5.78%	1,648	3.20%	912			8.89%	2,534
Imperial	49.15%	3,273	40.46%	2,694	5.45%	363	4.94%	329			8.69%	579
San Benito	51.80%	1,688	44.19%	1,440	2.79%	91	1.23%	40			7.61%	248
Santa Barbara	49.65%	5,198	42.54%	4,453	4.49%	470	3.31%	347	0.01%	1	7.12%	745
Mono	48.47%	158	42.02%	137	7.98%	26	1.53%	5			6.44%	21
Inyo	47.92%	966	41.96%	846	7.54%	152	2.58%	52			5.95%	120
Monterey	48.28%	3,878	44.81%	3,599	4.53%	364	2.38%	191			3.47%	279
Santa Cruz	47.76%	4,511	44.76%	4,228	4.05%	383	3.43%	324			3.00%	283
Tulare	46.87%	7,299	43.96%	6,845	5.75%	895	3.42%	533			2.92%	454
Contra Costa	46.82%	6,092	44.05%	5,731	6.81%	886	2.32%	302			2.77%	361
San Diego	46.02%	16,815	46.47%	16,978	4.41%	1,612	3.10%	1,132			-0.45%	-163
Mendocino	45.14%	3,371	46.79%	3,494	6.07%	453	2.01%	150			-1.65%	-123
Del Norte	41.35%	471	43.81%	499	12.64%	144	2.19%	25			-2.46%	-28
Marin	43.82%	3,789	50.05%	4,328	4.90%	424	1.23%	106			-6.23%	-539
San Mateo	43.08%	4,485	50.01%	5,207	5.19%	540	1.72%	179			-6.93%	-722
Sonoma	43.35%	8,377	50.37%	9,733	4.77%	921	1.52%	293			-7.02%	-1,356
Santa Clara	43.40%	14,185	50.77%	16,592	3.08%	1,006	2.71%	887	0.03%	11	-7.37%	-2,407
Alameda	42.84%	43,748	50.34%	51,417	5.31%	5,422	1.51%	1,544			-7.51%	-7,669
Los Angeles	42.58%	114,070	50.59%	135,554	3.01%	8,076	3.76%	10,061	0.06%	160	-8.02%	-21,484
San Bernardino	39.92%	9,398	50.68%	11,932	3.42%	805	5.99%	1,410			-10.76%	-2,534
Napa	41.39%	3,088	52.46%	3,914	4.07%	304	2.08%	155			-11.07%	-826
Humboldt	36.27%	4,103	51.14%	5,786	9.40%	1,063	3.19%	361			-14.88%	-1,683
Ventura	39.30%	2,835	55.18%	3,980	3.60%	260	1.91%	138			-15.87%	-1,145
Riverside	33.44%	4,561	54.64%	7,452	5.79%	790	6.13%	836			-21.20%	-2,891
Orange	34.54%	6,474	56.59%	10,609	3.43%	643	5.44%	1,020			-22.06%	-4,135
Alpine	27.71%	23	72.29%	60	0.00%	0	0.00%	0			-44.58%	-37

References

1. https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2018-general/sov/04-historical-voter-reg-participation.pdf
2. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 153-155 ISBN 0786422173
3. "1916 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 2008-08-25.