With more than 81% of the popular vote, Lincoln's victory in the state was his strongest victory in the country in terms of his share of the popular vote, and the strongest performance by any presidential candidate in Kansas.[1]
In addition to the votes cast for the regular electoral tickets pledged to Lincoln and McClellan, 655 votes were cast for Ellsworth Cheeseborough[a] of Atchison County. Some tertiary sources, such as Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, count these as votes for independent or write-in candidates.[2][b] In fact, Cheeseborough was an elector nominated on the National Union ticket who died prior to the election.[3][4] Nineteenth century election laws required voters to vote directly for members of the Electoral College, whose names appeared on tickets printed and circulated by the parties alongside the nominees for president and vice president.[5][6] This sometimes resulted in small differences in the number of votes cast for electors pledged to the same presidential candidate if some voters did not vote for all the electors nominated by a party, or if one or several electors were replaced close to the election.[7] Following Cheeseborough's death, the National Union Party substituted Thomas Moonlight and W. F. Cloud as candidates for the Electoral College from Kansas. (Nelson McCracken, the second elector on the National Union ticket, had also died in the interim.)[8][9] Nevertheless, Cheeseborough's name continued to appear on printed tickets as a National Union candidate for elector in the final days before the election.[10][11] A small number of tickets featuring Cheeseborough were cast, and these were counted separately from votes for the substitute National Union ticket.[12][13]
Results
1864 United States presidential election in Kansas[14]
^Leip counts 543 votes for Cheeseborough and 112 write-in votes; on inspection of the original returns published in the Annals of Kansas (p. 390), it appears these represent the soldier and civilian totals for Cheeseborough, which were tabulated separately.
^The Presidential Counts: A Complete Official Record [...]. New York. 1877. p. 441. One great objection to the present electoral system is that it absolutely circumscribes the power and the rights of the individual voter. He cannot now vote for the man of his choice for President, but must vote for electors.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Wilder, Daniel W. (1875). The Annals of Kansas. Topeka. pp. 389–90. Abstract of the Soldier vote for Electors of President and Vice President [...] E. Cheeseborough, 543.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
