# Lowest percentage of votes gotten by an election winner **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440 "2016-12-23T14:30:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/1 "2016-12-23T14:30:26Z")
I know Trump does not hold this record. Lepage got elected with 38% in 2010, although he did have a pluralilty. What is the lowest percentage of the popular vote that any politician received and still took office? Winning by way of faithless electors does not count. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/2 "2016-12-23T15:02:24Z")
John Quincy Adams got 30.9% of the popular vote in 1824. He was chosen by the House of Representatives. Lincoln got elected with 39.8% James Buckley was elected NY senator in 1970 with 39%. Jesse Ventura was elected Minnesota Governor in 1998 with 37%. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/3 "2016-12-23T15:03:35Z")
The lowest for president is John Quincy Adams with 30.9%. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/4 "2016-12-23T15:17:42Z")
I just found that in Angus King’s first gubernatorial election, he got 35%, which is the lowest for any Maine governor. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/5 "2016-12-23T15:19:44Z")
Lincoln Chafee was elected governor of Rhode Island in 2010 with only 36.1% of the vote. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/6 "2016-12-23T15:40:59Z")
This was the purpose of the electoral college - the founding fathers didn’t anticipate the politics would degenerate into a two-way race, and expected contests with 3 or 4 or more regional favorites. Nobody got 50% of the electoral votes, so congress picked the winner - who actually came second. > [@](#): > > Andrew Jackson Democratic-Republican Tennessee 151,271 41.4% 99 electoral votes > John Quincy Adams Democratic-Republican Massachusetts 113,122 30.9% 84 > William Harris Crawford Democratic-Republican Georgia 40,856 11.2% 41 > Henry Clay Democratic-Republican Kentucky 47,531 13.0% 37 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/7 "2016-12-23T16:17:51Z")
Huh, I thought that Schwarzenegger would be a contender here, with how crowded the field was that he was running in for California’s governorship, but even with that crowded field, he still managed 48.6% of the vote (his closest rival was at 31.5%). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/8 "2016-12-23T16:54:08Z")
Bill Clinton actually got a smaller percentage (43%) then Trump did when first elected. Although he had the highest of the three main candidates that year. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/9 "2016-12-23T17:08:20Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I know Trump does not hold this record. Lepage got elected with 38% in 2010, although he did have a pluralilty. What is the lowest percentage of the popular vote that any politician received and still took office? Winning by way of faithless electors does not count. There are plenty of towns that elect their town councils with an open election where the top 4 or 5 vote getters are elected. You get 10 or more people running in a given year and you often have “winners” with \< 10% of the vote. Searching gave me an example. In the 2015 Chapel Hill Town Council election 9 people ran for 4 seats. The Winners all had between 13% and 17% of the vote. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/10 "2016-12-23T18:13:47Z")
That might be a bit misleading. Generally these open elections for multiple seats involve each voter getting multiple votes, corresponding to the number of seats at stake. In such a case in an election with 4 candidates, the maximum % of the vote that any candidate could get - even if every single voter voted for them - would be 25%. And if such a candidate got between 13% and 17% of the vote that means that the majority of the voters voted for them. Some of the lowest percentages have been in elections in Louisiana congressional elections, which feature multiple people running for one seat. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/11 "2016-12-23T18:57:58Z")
That depends on what you’re using as the denominator. Is it number of votes received divided by total number of voters (in which case the winner of such a council election could get anything up to 100%), or is it divided by the total number of votes cast? Though even in the latter case, it’s still possible to get more than 1 over the number of seats, if some voters undervote. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/12 "2016-12-23T19:29:57Z")
My guess is that it would be in a race where there were no political party affiliations listed: town council or school district… ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/13 "2016-12-23T19:57:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That depends on what you’re using as the denominator. Is it number of votes received divided by total number of voters (in which case the winner of such a council election could get anything up to 100%), or is it divided by the total number of votes cast? To be a bit more precise, it doesn’t depend on what you’re using as the denominator, it depends on whatever the election people who report the results use as the denominator. Where I live, it’s common to have elections of this sort for local position. Typically there are 2 seats at stake with 4 candidates running (2 apiece for Republicans and Democrats), with the highest 2 vote-getters winning. The Election board reports results using total votes cast as a denominator, such that the winning candidates typically get 30%-35% of the vote. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/14 "2016-12-23T20:47:06Z")
In the UK’s 1992 general election, the Liberal Democrat candidate won the Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber with 26% of the vote. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lowest-percentage-of-votes-gotten-by-an-election-winner/775440/15 "2016-12-24T16:56:58Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > That might be a bit misleading. Generally these open elections for multiple seats involve each voter getting multiple votes, corresponding to the number of seats at stake. In such a case in an election with 4 candidates, the maximum % of the vote that any candidate could get - even if every single voter voted for them - would be 25%. And if such a candidate got between 13% and 17% of the vote that means that the majority of the voters voted for them. > > Some of the lowest percentages have been in elections in Louisiana congressional elections, which feature multiple people running for one seat. In two way Presidential elections, Trump holds the record for becoming President while losing the popular vote with the [greatest margin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_by_popular_vote_margin) (you can sort by margin of victory.) That’s if you don’t count the election of 1876, where there was a big dispute over the results from four different states and the election was settled by a compromise. The Republicans agreed to end reconstruction in the south in exchange for the Presidency, and the Republican candidate ended up becoming President even though he lost the popular vote by a margin greater than Trump had. Trump is also the President with the lowest popular vote percentage in a two way election. The six Presidents who won with lower popular vote percentages, all had more than one other challenger (see above chart and sort by percentage of popular vote.)