In 1960, Mississippi Democrats put two slates of electors on the ballot: a regular slate and an officially unpledged one.1 A Harvard Crimson editorial that December described the winner as a Barnett slate, after Governor Ross Barnett, that defeated both John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.2 According to a 2000 Baltimore Sun analysis, the unpledged electors beat the Kennedy electors by about 8,000 votes out of just over 200,000 Democratic votes, while the Republican electors received 75,000.3 The state's Department of Archives and History describes Mississippi's white voters as alienated by their party's attacks on segregation and wary of the Republicans.4
When the Electoral College met, all 8 Mississippi electors voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia for president and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for vice president.5 Mississippi and Alabama were the only states that did not choose electors pledged to one of the major candidates, the Crimson noted.6 Byrd finished with 15 electoral votes, 8 of them from Mississippi.7
National popular vote totals have generally credited Kennedy with the 108,362 votes cast for Mississippi's pledged Democratic electors, but not the votes for the unpledged slate.8 Kennedy won the presidency with 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219.9
Byrd received electoral votes for President from Alabama (6), Mississippi (8) and Oklahoma (1).
Thurmond received electoral votes for Vice President from Alabama (6) and Mississippi (8).
Goldwater received 1 electoral vote for Vice President from Oklahoma.
John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated on November 22, 1963. He was succeeded by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who took the oath of office in Dallas, Texas that day.
National Archives, Electoral College results for 1960, archives.gov, read October 3, 2026. Quoted as published.
Sources for each sentence
Each numbered entry quotes the words that support that sentence, as they appear on the linked page.
- Back to sentence 1
Mississippi Democrats were cool enough toward the national party that in addition to a regular slate of Democratic electors, they put on the state ballot a slate of officially unpledged Democratic electors.
baltimoresun.com/2000/12/19/electors-complicated-1960-vote - Back to sentence 2
In Mississippi, a Barnett slate of unpledged electors defeated both Kennedy and Nixon
thecrimson.com/article/1960/12/8/southern-fried-electors-ptoo-little-vituperation Governor Barnett and his allies had better learn to live with that.
thecrimson.com/article/1960/12/8/southern-fried-electors-ptoo-little-vituperation - Back to sentence 3
In Mississippi, the unpledged electors beat the pledged ones by about 8,000 votes out of just more than 200,000 Democratic votes cast (and Republican electors got 75,000 votes).
baltimoresun.com/2000/12/19/electors-complicated-1960-vote - Back to sentence 4
Increasingly alienated by their own party's attacks on segregation, yet still averse to a Republican Party that seemed little better
mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/presidential-elections-mississippis-voting-history - Back to sentence 5
Byrd received electoral votes for President from Alabama (6), Mississippi (8) and Oklahoma (1). Thurmond received electoral votes for Vice President from Alabama (6) and Mississippi (8).
archives.gov/electoral-college/1960 in favor of a ticket of unpledged electors who eventually cast the state's votes for U. S. Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia.
mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/presidential-elections-mississippis-voting-history - Back to sentence 6
Yet the Southern electorate, such as it is, in every state but two chose electors pledged to one or the other of the major Presidential candidates.
thecrimson.com/article/1960/12/8/southern-fried-electors-ptoo-little-vituperation - Back to sentence 7
Electoral Vote Winner: 303 Main Opponent: 219 Total/Majority: 537/269 Votes for Others Harry F. Byrd (15)
archives.gov/electoral-college/1960 Byrd received electoral votes for President from Alabama (6), Mississippi (8) and Oklahoma (1).
archives.gov/electoral-college/1960 - Back to sentence 8
the total national popular vote for president included for Kennedy the 108,362 votes cast for the pledged Democratic electors in Mississippi, but not the 116,303 cast for the unpledged ones.
baltimoresun.com/2000/12/19/electors-complicated-1960-vote - Back to sentence 9
Electoral Vote Winner: 303 Main Opponent: 219 Total/Majority: 537/269
archives.gov/electoral-college/1960
Sources checked on October 3, 2026
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