United States presidential election in the District of Columbia, 2008

United States presidential election in District of Columbia, 2008
Washington, D.C.
November 4, 2008
 
Nominee Barack Obama John McCain
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Arizona
Running mate Joe Biden Sarah Palin
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 245,800 17,367
Percentage 92.46% 6.53%

District of Columbia results by ward
  Obama—80-90%
  Obama—>90%
President before election

George W. Bush
Republican

 Elected President

Barack Obama
Democratic

The 2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia took place on November 4, 2008 throughout all 50 states and D.C., which was part of the 2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 3 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

The District of Columbia went to Democrat Barack Obama by a margin of 210,403 votes out of 225,224 votes cast, about 92 percentage points of the total vote.[1] Obama's margin was wider than John Kerry's in 2004, when Kerry won the District of Columbia by a margin of about 80 percentage points.[2] D.C. has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election by large margins since 1964.

Primaries

Results

United States presidential election in the District of Columbia, 2008[3]
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 weren't counted. Litigation is ongoing to have the votes counted. [4]

Results Breakdown

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

Technically the voters of D.C. cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. D.C. is allocated 3 electors. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 3 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 3 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.[5] 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 3 were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:[6]

References

  1. ↑ "CNN Election Center 2008 - District of Columbia Results". Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  2. ↑ "Electoral-vote.com". Retrieved 2008-11-27.
  3. ↑ "District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics". DC Board of Elections and Ethics. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  4. ↑ "D.C. Board of Elections: Write-ins too much bother to count". Ballot Access News. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
  5. ↑ "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
  6. ↑ District of Columbia Certificate of Ascertainment, page 1 of 2.. National Archives and Record Administration.

See also

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