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 County Results
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The1896 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 3, 1896, as part of the1896 United States presidential election. Voters chose nine representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
South Carolina overwhelmingly voted for theDemocratic nominee, formerU.S. Representative from NebraskaWilliam Jennings Bryan, over theRepublican nominee, formergovernor of OhioWilliam McKinley. Bryan won the state by a landslide margin of 71.79%. However, McKinley's performance would actually prove to be a high water mark for Republicans going into the 20th century; he was the last Republican to win even 10% of the state's vote untilDwight D. Eisenhower in1952.
With 85.3% of the popular vote, South Carolina would prove to be Bryan's second strongest state in the 1896 presidential election only afterMississippi.[1] This election marked the end of Reconstruction in South Carolina, following the 1895 state constitutional convention that disenfranchised African Americans in South Carolina.[2] The multiple-ballot box law was challenged in court. On May 8, 1895, JudgeNathan Goff of theUnited States Circuit Court declared the provision unconstitutional and enjoined the state from taking further action under it. But in June 1895, the USFourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Goff and dissolved the injunction,[3] leaving the way open for a convention.
The constitutional convention met on September 10 and adjourned on December 4, 1895. By the new constitution, South Carolina adopted the Mississippi Plan until January 1, 1898. Any male citizen could be registered who was able to read a section of the constitution or to satisfy the election officer that he understood it when read to him. Those thus registered were to remain voters for life. Under the new constitution and application of literacy practices, black voters were dropped in great numbers from the registration rolls: by 1896, in a state where according to the 1890 census blacks numbered 728,934 and comprised nearly sixty percent of the total population,[4] only 5,500 black voters had succeeded in registering.[5]
Bryan would later defeat McKinley in South Carolina againfour years later and would win the state again in1908 againstWilliam Howard Taft.
| 1896 United States presidential election in South Carolina[6] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Democratic | William Jennings Bryan ofNebraska | Arthur Sewall ofMaine | 58,801 | 85.30% | 9 | 100.00% | ||
| Republican | William McKinley ofOhio | Garret Hobart ofNew Jersey | 9,313 | 13.51% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| National Democratic | John McAuley Palmer ofIllinois | Simon Bolivar Buckner ofKentucky | 824 | 1.20% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 68,938 | 100.00% | 9 | 100.00% | ||||
| County | William Jennings Bryan Democratic | William McKinley Republican | John McAuley Palmer National Democratic | Margin | Total votes cast[7] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Abbeville | 2,473 | 87.98% | 337 | 11.99% | 1 | 0.04% | 2,136 | 75.99% | 2,811 |
| Aiken | 1,819 | 92.48% | 137 | 6.96% | 11 | 0.56% | 1,682 | 85.51% | 1,967 |
| Anderson | 3,109 | 88.98% | 368 | 10.53% | 17 | 0.49% | 2,741 | 78.45% | 3,494 |
| Barnwell | 2,385 | 90.79% | 239 | 9.10% | 3 | 0.11% | 2,146 | 81.69% | 2,627 |
| Beaufort | 289 | 39.43% | 444 | 60.57% | 0 | 0.00% | −155 | −21.15% | 733 |
| Berkeley | 513 | 72.77% | 183 | 25.96% | 9 | 1.28% | 330 | 46.81% | 705 |
| Charleston | 1,660 | 47.82% | 1,262 | 36.36% | 549 | 15.82% | 398 | 11.47% | 3,471 |
| Chester | 1,254 | 93.58% | 76 | 5.67% | 10 | 0.75% | 1,178 | 87.91% | 1,340 |
| Chesterfield | 1,465 | 86.94% | 220 | 13.06% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,245 | 73.89% | 1,685 |
| Clarendon | 1,450 | 87.51% | 207 | 12.49% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,243 | 75.02% | 1,657 |
| Colleton | 1,646 | 82.51% | 343 | 17.19% | 6 | 0.30% | 1,303 | 65.31% | 1,995 |
| Darlington | 1,625 | 87.98% | 201 | 10.88% | 21 | 1.14% | 1,424 | 77.10% | 1,847 |
| Edgefield | 1,532 | 87.29% | 216 | 12.31% | 7 | 0.40% | 1,316 | 74.99% | 1,755 |
| Fairfield | 1,078 | 95.23% | 54 | 4.77% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,024 | 90.46% | 1,132 |
| Florence | 1,530 | 89.95% | 136 | 8.00% | 35 | 2.06% | 1,394 | 81.95% | 1,701 |
| Georgetown | 459 | 37.35% | 734 | 59.72% | 36 | 2.93% | −275 | −22.38% | 1,229 |
| Greenville | 2,718 | 89.38% | 288 | 9.47% | 35 | 1.15% | 2,430 | 79.91% | 3,041 |
| Hampton | 1,072 | 97.72% | 25 | 2.28% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,047 | 95.44% | 1,097 |
| Horry | 1,372 | 87.50% | 196 | 12.50% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,176 | 75.00% | 1,568 |
| Kershaw | 1,191 | 89.41% | 139 | 10.44% | 2 | 0.15% | 1,052 | 78.98% | 1,332 |
| Lancaster | 1,557 | 89.79% | 177 | 10.21% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,380 | 79.58% | 1,734 |
| Laurens | 1,943 | 94.60% | 111 | 5.40% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,832 | 89.19% | 2,054 |
| Lexington | 1,672 | 89.46% | 197 | 10.54% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,475 | 78.92% | 1,869 |
| Marion | 1,936 | 85.66% | 313 | 13.85% | 11 | 0.49% | 1,623 | 71.81% | 2,260 |
| Marlboro | 1,232 | 83.70% | 237 | 16.10% | 3 | 0.20% | 995 | 67.60% | 1,472 |
| Newberry | 1,525 | 95.43% | 64 | 4.01% | 9 | 0.56% | 1,461 | 91.43% | 1,598 |
| Oconee | 1,392 | 87.49% | 199 | 12.51% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,193 | 74.98% | 1,591 |
| Orangeburg | 2,729 | 90.63% | 282 | 9.37% | 0 | 0.00% | 2,447 | 81.27% | 3,011 |
| Pickens | 1,261 | 88.12% | 170 | 11.88% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,091 | 76.24% | 1,431 |
| Richland | 925 | 65.05% | 468 | 32.91% | 29 | 2.04% | 457 | 32.14% | 1,422 |
| Saluda | 1,241 | 95.39% | 60 | 4.61% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,181 | 90.78% | 1,301 |
| Spartanburg | 4,234 | 94.49% | 247 | 5.51% | 0 | 0.00% | 3,987 | 88.98% | 4,481 |
| Sumter | 1,550 | 81.58% | 326 | 17.16% | 24 | 1.26% | 1,224 | 64.42% | 1,900 |
| Union | 1,379 | 89.60% | 158 | 10.27% | 2 | 0.13% | 1,221 | 79.34% | 1,539 |
| Williamsburg | 1,570 | 81.73% | 347 | 18.06% | 4 | 0.21% | 1,223 | 63.66% | 1,921 |
| York | 2,013 | 92.81% | 152 | 7.01% | 4 | 0.18% | 1,861 | 85.80% | 2,169 |
| Totals | 58,799 | 87.70% | 9,313 | 13.51% | 824 | 1.23% | 49,486 | 71.78% | 68,940 |
State and district results of the1896 United States presidential election | ||
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