1976
The 1976 U.S. presidential election was won by Jimmy Carter (Democratic) with 297 of 538 electoral votes, defeating Gerald Ford (Republican). Electoral-vote margin: 57 (297 to 240). Popular-vote margin: 2.1 percentage points. Turnout was 54.8%. The cycle falls in the Cold War Realignment era of American electoral history.
Open the what-if calculator → — flip states and re-count. A toy, not history.
Jimmy Carter and the 1976 map
Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, a post-Watergate outsider who had never held national office, narrowly defeated incumbent Gerald Ford. Ford was damaged by his controversial pardon of Nixon and Reagan's strong primary challenge had exposed his vulnerability. Carter ran as a Washington outsider of integrity and won Southern states that had been going Republican. The debates saw Ford claim that Poland was not under Soviet domination — a gaffe that hurt him badly. Carter won the Electoral College 297-240.
Watergate aftermath; Nixon pardon; economic stagflation; Washington corruption
Ford's Nixon pardon cost him heavily; Carter was the first Deep South president since before the Civil War
This summary was drafted with AI tools and has not yet been checked sentence by sentence. The vote table and the National Archives note on this page come from named sources; where they differ from the summary, rely on them. Tell us about an error.
A Washington (State) elector voted for Ronald Reagan.
National Archives, Electoral College results for 1976, archives.gov, read October 3, 2026. Quoted as published.
States · 51 reporting
State results · 1976
WisconsinCarter won it by 1.7 points; its electoral votes took the total to 272, past the 270 needed.
Line up the states the winner carried from widest margin to narrowest and add up their electoral votes: the tipping point is the state that takes the total past a majority.
Scroll the table sideways for every column.
| State | Electoral votes | Jimmy Carter Dem | Gerald Ford Rep | Also named | Margin | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 9 EV | 659,170 55.7% | 504,070 42.6% | None | 155,100 13.1 pts | Carter Dem |
| Alaska | 3 EV | 44,058 35.7% | 71,555 57.9% | Roger MacBride 6,785 · 5.5% | 27,497 22.3 pts | Ford Rep |
| Arizona | 6 EV | 295,602 39.8% | 418,642 56.4% | Eugene McCarthy 19,229 · 2.6% Roger MacBride 7,647 · 1.0% | 123,040 16.6 pts | Ford Rep |
| Arkansas | 6 EV | 498,604 65.0% | 267,903 34.9% | None | 230,701 30.1 pts | Carter Dem |
| California | 45 EV | 3,742,284 48.0% | 3,882,244 49.7% | None | 139,960 1.8 pts | Ford Rep |
| Colorado | 7 EV | 460,801 42.6% | 584,278 54.0% | Eugene McCarthy 26,047 · 2.4% | 123,477 11.4 pts | Ford Rep |
| Connecticut | 8 EV | 647,895 46.7% | 719,261 51.9% | None | 71,366 5.1 pts | Ford Rep |
| Delaware1 | 3 EV | 122,461 52.0% | 109,780 46.6% | None | 12,681 5.4 pts | Carter Dem |
| District of Columbia | 3 EV | 137,818 81.6% | 27,873 16.5% | None | 109,945 65.1 pts | Carter Dem |
| Florida | 17 EV | 1,636,000 51.9% | 1,469,531 46.6% | None | 166,469 5.3 pts | Carter Dem |
| Georgia | 12 EV | 979,409 66.9% | 483,743 33.1% | None | 495,666 33.9 pts | Carter Dem |
| Hawaii | 4 EV | 147,375 50.6% | 140,003 48.1% | Roger MacBride 3,923 · 1.3% | 7,372 2.5 pts | Carter Dem |
| Idaho | 4 EV | 126,549 37.1% | 204,151 59.9% | Lester Maddox 5,935 · 1.7% Roger MacBride 3,558 · 1.0% | 77,602 22.8 pts | Ford Rep |
| Illinois | 26 EV | 2,271,295 48.1% | 2,364,269 50.1% | Eugene McCarthy 55,939 · 1.2% | 92,974 2.0 pts | Ford Rep |
| Indiana | 13 EV | 1,014,714 45.7% | 1,183,958 53.3% | None | 169,244 7.6 pts | Ford Rep |
| Iowa | 8 EV | 619,931 48.5% | 632,864 49.5% | Eugene McCarthy 20,057 · 1.6% | 12,933 1.0 pts | Ford Rep |
| Kansas | 7 EV | 430,421 44.9% | 502,752 52.5% | Eugene McCarthy 13,185 · 1.4% | 72,331 7.6 pts | Ford Rep |
| Kentucky | 9 EV | 615,717 52.8% | 531,852 45.6% | None | 83,865 7.2 pts | Carter Dem |
| Louisiana | 10 EV | 661,365 51.8% | 587,446 46.0% | None | 73,919 5.8 pts | Carter Dem |
| Maine | 4 EV | 232,279 48.1% | 236,320 48.9% | Eugene McCarthy 10,874 · 2.3% | 4,041 0.8 pts | Ford Rep |
| Maryland | 10 EV | 759,612 53.0% | 672,661 47.0% | None | 86,951 6.1 pts | Carter Dem |
| Massachusetts | 14 EV | 1,429,475 56.1% | 1,030,276 40.4% | Eugene McCarthy 65,637 · 2.6% | 399,199 15.7 pts | Carter Dem |
| Michigan | 21 EV | 1,696,714 46.5% | 1,893,742 51.9% | Eugene McCarthy 47,905 · 1.3% | 197,028 5.4 pts | Ford Rep |
| Minnesota | 10 EV | 1,070,440 54.9% | 819,395 42.0% | Eugene McCarthy 35,490 · 1.8% | 251,045 12.9 pts | Carter Dem |
| Mississippi | 7 EV | 381,329 49.6% | 366,846 47.7% | None | 14,483 1.9 pts | Carter Dem |
| Missouri | 12 EV | 998,387 51.1% | 927,443 47.5% | Eugene McCarthy 24,029 · 1.2% | 70,944 3.6 pts | Carter Dem |
| Montana | 4 EV | 149,259 45.4% | 173,703 52.8% | Thomas J. Anderson 5,772 · 1.8% | 24,444 7.4 pts | Ford Rep |
| Nebraska | 5 EV | 233,293 38.4% | 359,219 59.2% | Eugene McCarthy 9,383 · 1.5% | 125,926 20.8 pts | Ford Rep |
| Nevada | 3 EV | 92,479 45.8% | 101,273 50.2% | None | 8,794 4.4 pts | Ford Rep |
| New Hampshire | 4 EV | 147,645 43.5% | 185,935 54.7% | Eugene McCarthy 4,095 · 1.2% | 38,290 11.3 pts | Ford Rep |
| New Jersey | 17 EV | 1,444,653 47.9% | 1,509,688 50.1% | Eugene McCarthy 32,717 · 1.1% | 65,035 2.2 pts | Ford Rep |
| New Mexico | 4 EV | 201,148 48.3% | 211,419 50.7% | None | 10,271 2.5 pts | Ford Rep |
| New York | 41 EV | 3,389,558 50.8% | 3,100,791 46.5% | None | 288,767 4.3 pts | Carter Dem |
| North Carolina | 13 EV | 927,365 55.3% | 741,960 44.2% | None | 185,405 11.0 pts | Carter Dem |
| North Dakota | 3 EV | 136,078 45.8% | 153,684 51.7% | Thomas J. Anderson 3,698 · 1.2% | 17,606 5.9 pts | Ford Rep |
| Ohio | 25 EV | 2,009,959 48.9% | 2,000,626 48.7% | Eugene McCarthy 58,267 · 1.4% | 9,333 0.2 pts | Carter Dem |
| Oklahoma | 8 EV | 532,442 48.7% | 545,708 50.0% | Eugene McCarthy 14,101 · 1.3% | 13,266 1.2 pts | Ford Rep |
| Oregon | 6 EV | 490,407 47.6% | 492,120 47.8% | Eugene McCarthy 40,207 · 3.9% | 1,713 0.2 pts | Ford Rep |
| Pennsylvania | 27 EV | 2,328,677 50.4% | 2,205,604 47.7% | Eugene McCarthy 50,584 · 1.1% | 123,073 2.7 pts | Carter Dem |
| Rhode Island | 4 EV | 227,636 55.4% | 181,249 44.1% | None | 46,387 11.3 pts | Carter Dem |
| South Carolina | 8 EV | 450,807 56.2% | 346,149 43.1% | None | 104,658 13.0 pts | Carter Dem |
| South Dakota | 4 EV | 147,068 48.9% | 151,505 50.4% | None | 4,437 1.5 pts | Ford Rep |
| Tennessee | 10 EV | 825,879 55.9% | 633,969 42.9% | None | 191,910 13.0 pts | Carter Dem |
| Texas | 26 EV | 2,082,319 51.1% | 1,953,300 48.0% | None | 129,019 3.2 pts | Carter Dem |
| Utah | 4 EV | 182,110 33.6% | 337,908 62.4% | Thomas J. Anderson 13,304 · 2.5% | 155,798 28.8 pts | Ford Rep |
| Vermont | 3 EV | 77,798 42.3% | 100,387 54.6% | Eugene McCarthy 4,001 · 2.2% | 22,589 12.3 pts | Ford Rep |
| Virginia | 12 EV | 813,896 48.0% | 836,554 49.3% | Peter Camejo 17,802 · 1.0% | 22,658 1.3 pts | Ford Rep |
| Washington | 9 EV Ford 8, Reagan 1 (faithless elector) | 717,323 46.1% | 777,732 50.0% | Eugene McCarthy 36,986 · 2.4% | 60,409 3.9 pts | Ford Rep |
| West Virginia | 6 EV | 435,864 58.1% | 314,726 41.9% | None | 121,138 16.1 pts | Carter Dem |
| Wisconsin | 11 EV | 1,040,232 49.5% | 1,004,987 47.8% | Eugene McCarthy 34,943 · 1.7% | 35,245 1.7 pts | Carter Dem |
| Wyoming | 3 EV | 62,239 39.8% | 92,717 59.3% | None | 30,478 19.5 pts | Ford Rep |
Shares are of each state’s total vote for president. “Not named”: the figures do not give that candidate a line of their own in that state — for example under 1% of the vote, not on the ballot there, or counted on an unnamed line (see the state’s note). Margin is the leader’s lead over the second-placed candidate.
Notes on the figures
- Delaware The source reports 2,432 votes under the label 'No Party Affiliation' on one line with no candidate name, so the people they went to cannot be shown separately; they are counted in 'Other candidates'.
SourceMIT Election Data and Science Lab, U.S. President 1976–2024 . How these figures were compiled
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