A presidential election was held in New Hampshire on November 5, 1804, as part of the 1804 United States presidential election. The Democratic-Republican Party's ticket of incumbent president Thomas Jefferson and former New York governor George Clinton defeated the Federalist Party's ticket.
Jefferson won the national election in a landslide over the de facto Federalist candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. New Hampshire was one of three states where electors were chosen by popular vote which the Federalists seriously contested, in addition to Massachusetts and Maryland. Although a clandestine gathering of Federalist members of Congress had nominated Pinckney in February, the Federalist electors were formally unpledged. Manning J. Dauer argues that the uncertainty surrounding the identity of the Federalist nominees contributed to the party's poor showing in the election.
General election Summary New Hampshire chose 7 electors on a statewide general ticket. Nineteenth-century election laws required voters to elect the members of the Electoral College individually, rather than as a block. This sometimes resulted in small differences in the number of votes cast for electors pledged to the same presidential nominee, if some voters did not vote for all the electors nominated by a party. The following table compares the votes for the leading Democratic-Republican and Federalist electors to give an approximate sense of the statewide popular vote.
Results + 1804 United States presidential election in New Hampshire Party Candidate Votes Democratic-Republican Levi Bartlett 9,088 Democratic-Republican John Goddard 9,084 Democratic-Republican Robert Alcock 9,075 Democratic-Republican William Tarlton 9,072 Democratic-Republican Timothy Walker 9,048 Democratic-Republican Jonathan Steele 9,033 Democratic-Republican George Aldrich 8,995 Federalist Oliver Peabody 8,386 Federalist Robert Wallace 8,385 Federalist William Hale 8,381 Federalist John Prentiss 8,380 Federalist Timothy Farrar 8,377 Federalist Benjamin West 8,368 Federalist Charles Johnson 8,364 ≈17,474
Results by county This table compares the votes for the leading elector pledged to each ticket by county. It therefore differs slightly from the results summary, which compares the votes for the leading electors statewide.
+ 1804 United States presidential election in New Hampshire County Thomas JeffersonDemocratic-Republican Unpledged electorsFederalist Margin Total Votes % Votes % Votes % Cheshire 1,442 39.12 2,244 60.88 802 -21.76 -3,686 Grafton 696 35.62 1,258 64.38 -562 -28.76 1,954 Hillsborough 2,118 59.15 1,463 40.85 655 18.30 3,581 Rockingham 3,130 64.98 1,687 35.02 1,443 29.96 4,817 Strafford 1,312 49.30 1,349 50.70 -37 -1.40 2,661 TOTAL 8,698 52.09 8,001 47.91 697 4.18% 16,699
See also United States presidential elections in New Hampshire
References
Bibliography