1860 Election
The election that initiated the Civil War, there really isn’t an election as defining for US history than the ascendancy of President Lincoln. A few interesting anecdotes: the slave owners knew Lincoln was such an affront to their barbarity that he wasn’t even on the ballot in the Southern States and yet Lincoln still won. When Lincoln was inaugurated there was a genuine fear that it would be thwarted by opponents of Lincoln. The police commissioner got officers from outside of Washington to be in plain clothes through the city where they kept the peace.
1968 Election
The victory of Republican Richard Nixon in 1968 was marked as a dark turn by many toward the end of the turbulent 60s. It was the first time an incumbent President opted not to seek a second term, as President Johnson became widely unpopular due to the Vietnam War. The election campaign was marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, as well as the riots during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
2000 Election
The beginning of the Bush Administration, the election itself was not a smooth win for the W. Democratic nominee Al Gore won the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, but lost by just five electoral votes. It came down to Florida which Bush won by a small margin, so small that there were continued calls for a recount to assure who precisely the President was. The push for a statewide recount was ruled as ‘unconstitutional’ by the Supreme Court of the United States.
