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The Most Contentious Election In US History
And you thought 2020 was bad
Election violence. Voter suppression. Contested results. Hurt feelings on both sides. A constitutional crisis. If you were to ask Americans which election had all of these unfavorable traits, many would quickly try and point to the 2020 election. However, whatever your feelings are about the 2020 election, it was not the most contentious election in United States history. That honor goes to the often forgotten election of 1876.
The election of 1876 saw the Republican candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, face off against the Democratic governor of New York, Samuel J. Tilden. On the ballot was a referendum on Republican rule and opinions on a floundering and lackluster Reconstruction effort. The Republicans had been running the country for 16 years since the election of Abraham Lincoln. (Andrew Johnson wasn’t technically a Republican, but he had to deal with a strong Republican sentiment in the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination.) Reconstruction was still going on, but it had fizzled out, and few people were happy with the results.
These issues drove a record number of Americans to the ballot box. The election of 1876 saw an astounding voter turnout of 82.6%, a record that still has not been broken.
