2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia
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.
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 Ward Results
Obama 80-90% 90-100%
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| Elections in the District of Columbia |
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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] Obama's margin was wider than John Kerry's in 2004, when Kerry won the District of Columbia by a margin of about 80%.[2] D.C. has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election by large margins since 1964.
Results
| 2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia[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]
- Muriel Bowser
- Jerry S. Cooper
- Vincent C. Gray
References
- "CNN Election Center 2008 - District of Columbia Results". Retrieved 2008-11-27.
- "Electoral-vote.com". Retrieved 2008-11-27.
- "District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics". DC Board of Elections and Ethics. Archived from the original on 2009-01-25. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
- "D.C. Board of Elections: Write-ins too much bother to count". Ballot Access News. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
- "Electoral College". California Secretary of State. Archived from the original on October 30, 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-01.
- District of Columbia Certificate of Ascertainment, page 1 of 2.. National Archives and Record Administration.
