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The2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the2008 United States presidential election. In D.C., voters chose three representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice 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 since1964 when the District gained the right to electoral representation through the23rd amendment.
TheDistrict of Columbia went to DemocratBarack Obama by a margin of 210,403 votes out of 225,224 votes cast, about 92% of the total vote.[1] As of 2024, this remains the largest share of the popular vote ever won by any candidate in the District of Columbia sinceit was granted electoral votes in 1961. This was larger thanJohn Kerry's in2004, 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 sinceFranklin D. Roosevelt in the1940 United States presidential election in Mississippi.
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 |
| 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 awrite-in in the District of Columbia, but votes for him were not counted. Litigation is ongoing to have the votes counted.[17]
| Ward[18] | Barack Obama Democratic | John McCain Republican | Various Candidates Other Parties | Margin | Total Votes Cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Ward 1 | 28,977 | 93.39% | 1,599 | 5.15% | 453 | 1.46% | 27,378 | 88.24% | 31,029 |
| Ward 2 | 24,865 | 85.88% | 3,619 | 12.50% | 468 | 1.62% | 21,246 | 73.38% | 28,952 |
| Ward 3 | 30,491 | 82.79% | 5,737 | 15.58% | 603 | 1.64% | 24,754 | 67.21% | 36,831 |
| Ward 4 | 34,720 | 95.40% | 1,395 | 3.83% | 280 | 0.76% | 33,325 | 91.57% | 36,395 |
| Ward 5 | 33,259 | 96.74% | 887 | 2.58% | 233 | 0.68% | 32,372 | 94.16% | 34,379 |
| Ward 6 | 31,031 | 88.64% | 3,518 | 10.05% | 457 | 1.31% | 27,513 | 78.59% | 35,006 |
| Ward 7 | 33,663 | 98.72% | 312 | 0.91% | 125 | 0.36% | 33,351 | 97.81% | 34,100 |
| Ward 8 | 27,394 | 99.02% | 210 | 0.76% | 61 | 0.22% | 27,184 | 98.26% | 27,665 |
| Total | 244,400 | 92.46% | 17,277 | 6.53% | 2,680 | 1.01% | 227,123 | 85.93% | 264,357 |
Technically the voters of D.C. cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral 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 their 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.[19] An elector who votes for someone other than their candidate is known as afaithless elector.
The electors of each state and theDistrict 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 toBarack Obama andJoe Biden:[20]
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