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Trivia answer
What was the narrowest popular vote margin by which a candidate won a state?
a. Four votes
b. 38 votes
c. 537 votes
d. 1,324 votes
In the 1832 presidential election, Sen. Henry Clay (National Republican) carried Maryland by a margin of four votes over incumbent Andrew Jackson (D).[1] Since the popular vote was first recorded in 1824, there have been 62 cases where a state was carried by a margin of 1,000 votes or fewer, including four cases where the margin was under 100 votes.[2]
Of the 62 votes, 50 took place during the 19th century. Delaware has the most sub-1,000 margins of any state, with eight elections. It is followed by Maryland with seven. Of the four elections where a state was carried by fewer than 1,000 votes, two took place in Maryland, one in Delaware, and one in New Hampshire.
The most recent election where a state was carried by fewer than 1,000 votes was the 2000 election. That year, Vice President Al Gore (D) carried New Mexico by a margin of 366 votes while Gov. George W. Bush (R) carried Florida by a margin of 537 votes. It was the first election where a state was carried by under 1,000 votes since 1960 and the first where two states were decided by under 1,000 votes since 1916.
Footnotes
