United States Presidential Election of 1876

Hayes beat Tilden 185 to 184 after a commission settled twenty disputed electors.

Overview

Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote by 3 points and stood one electoral vote short with 184, while twenty votes in Florida, Louisiana, and Oregon remained disputed amid violence and fraud. Congress created an electoral commission of fifteen, which by a single 8-to-7 party-line vote awarded every dispute to Republican Rutherford Hayes, 185 to 184. Southern Democrats accepted the result in the Compromise of 1877, trading Hayes's presidency for withdrawal of federal troops, ending Reconstruction. The episode inspired the Electoral Count Act of 1887.