2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia
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The 2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. In D.C., voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Prior to the election, the nation's capital was considered to be a certain lock for Obama. Washington D.C. is fiercely Democratic and has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election by large margins since 1964 when the District gained the right to electoral representation through the 23rd amendment.
The District of Columbia went to Democrat Barack Obama by a margin of 210,403 votes out of 225,224 votes cast, about 92% of the total vote.[1] As of 2020, this remains the largest share of the popular vote ever won by any candidate in the District of Columbia since it was granted electoral votes in 1961. This was larger than John Kerry's in 2004, when he won the District with about 89% of the vote.[2]
Obama received the largest vote share for a major party nominee in any jurisdiction since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 United States presidential election in Mississippi.
Primaries
[edit]Campaign
[edit]Predictions
[edit]16 news organizations made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:
| Source | Ranking |
|---|---|
| D.C. Political Report[3] | Likely D |
| Cook Political Report[4] | Solid D |
| The Takeaway[5] | Solid D |
| Electoral-vote.com[6] | Solid D |
| Washington Post[7] | Solid D |
| Politico[8] | Solid D |
| RealClearPolitics[9] | Solid D |
| FiveThirtyEight[7] | Solid D |
| CQ Politics[10] | Solid D |
| The New York Times[11] | Solid D |
| CNN[12] | Safe D |
| NPR[7] | Solid D |
| MSNBC[7] | Solid D |
| Fox News[13] | Likely D |
| Associated Press[14] | Likely D |
| Rasmussen Reports[15] | Safe D |
Results
[edit]| 2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia[16] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Barack Obama | Joe Biden | 245,800 | 92.46% | 3 | |
| Republican | John McCain | Sarah Palin | 17,367 | 6.53% | 0 | |
| Independent | Ralph Nader | Matt Gonzalez | 958 | 0.36% | 0 | |
| Green | Cynthia McKinney | Rosa Clemente | 590 | 0.22% | 0 | |
| N/A | Write-ins | N/A | 1,138 | 0.43% | 0 | |
| Totals | 265,853 | 100.00% | 3 | |||
| Voter turnout | 53.51% | — | ||||
Bob Barr was certified as a write-in in the District of Columbia, but votes for him were not counted. Litigation is ongoing to have the votes counted.[17]
By Ward
[edit]Each candidate's best result is shown in bold.
| Ward | Barack Obama | John McCain | Ralph Nader | Cynthia McKinney | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 93.39% | 28,977 | 5.15% | 1,599 | 0.52% | 161 | 0.42% | 131 |
| Ward 2 | 85.88% | 24,865 | 12.50% | 3,619 | 0.62% | 180 | 0.20% | 57 |
| Ward 3 | 82.79% | 30,491 | 15.58% | 5,737 | 0.62% | 229 | 0.22% | 81 |
| Ward 4 | 95.40% | 34,720 | 3.83% | 1,395 | 0.26% | 96 | 0.24% | 88 |
| Ward 5 | 96.74% | 33,259 | 2.58% | 887 | 0.22% | 76 | 0.23% | 79 |
| Ward 6 | 88.64% | 31,031 | 10.05% | 3,518 | 0.45% | 156 | 0.23% | 82 |
| Ward 7 | 98.72% | 33,663 | 0.91% | 312 | 0.11% | 39 | 0.14% | 48 |
| Ward 8 | 99.02% | 27,394 | 0.76% | 210 | 0.07% | 20 | 0.08% | |
Electors
[edit]Technically the voters of D.C. cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. D.C. is allocated three electors. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of three electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all three electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them.[18] An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All three were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:[19]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "CNN Election Center 2008 - District of Columbia Results". Retrieved November 27, 2008.
- ^ "Electoral-vote.com". Retrieved November 27, 2008.
- ^ "D.C.'s Political Report: The complete source for campaign summaries". January 1, 2009. Archived from the original on January 1, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
- ^ "Presidential". May 5, 2015. Archived from the original on May 5, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
- ^ "Vote 2008 - The Takeaway - Track the Electoral College vote predictions". April 22, 2009. Archived from the original on April 22, 2009. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
- ^ "Electoral-vote.com: President, Senate, House Updated Daily". electoral-vote.com. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
- ^ a b c d Based on Takeaway
- ^ "POLITICO's 2008 Swing State Map - POLITICO.com". www.politico.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
- ^ "RealClearPolitics - Electoral Map". Archived from the original on June 5, 2008.
- ^ "CQ Presidential Election Maps, 2008". CQ Politics. Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2009.
- ^ Nagourney, Adam; Zeleny, Jeff; Carter, Shan (November 4, 2008). "The Electoral Map: Key States". The New York Times. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
- ^ "October – 2008 – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs". CNN. October 31, 2008. Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved May 26, 2010.
- ^ "Winning The Electoral College". Fox News. April 27, 2010.
- ^ "roadto270". hosted.ap.org. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
- ^ "Election 2008: Electoral College Update - Rasmussen Reports". www.rasmussenreports.com. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
- ^ "District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics". DC Board of Elections and Ethics. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 18, 2009.
- ^ "D.C. Board of Elections: Write-ins too much bother to count". Ballot Access News. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
- ^ "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved November 1, 2008.
- ^ District of Columbia Certificate of Ascertainment, page 1 of 2.. National Archives and Records Administration.
