A presidential election was held in Pennsylvania on November 2, 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.
The Democratic-Republican members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly held a caucus on March 22 and nominated electors pledged to Jefferson and Clinton. The Federalists were disorganized and pessimistic about their ability to carry the state. A gathering of Federalists met in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on October 25 and belatedly nominated electors; although a clandestine meeting of Congressional Federalists had nominated Charles Cotesworth Pinckney for president in February, the Federalist ticket was formally unpledged. Predictions that the Federalists would seek to exploit factionalism within the Pennsylvania Democratic-Republican Party proved unfounded, for Jefferson carried all but one of the state's 32 counties with nearly 95 percent of the votes.
General election Summary Pennsylvania chose 20 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.
Electors Complete returns from all but a few counties have been lost. The results published in the Lancaster Intelligencer and the Philadelphia Aurora compare the votes for the leading electors in each county. Twenty electors were named on each ticket, in addition to write-in candidates who received scattering votes in a few counties; two Federalist tickets received votes in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, including the ticket nominated by the Federalist convention and an alternate ticket with only 15 electors. All 20 electors on the Democratic-Republican ticket were elected.
Thomas Jefferson andGeorge ClintonDemocratic-Republican Party Unpledged electorsFederalist Party Unpledged electorsFederalist Party(Northampton County)
Results by county + 1804 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania by county County Thomas JeffersonDemocratic-Republican Unpledged electorsFederalist Margin Total Votes % Votes % Votes % Adams 208 45.41 250 54.59 -42 -9.17 458 Allegheny 526 100.00 — 526 100.00 526 Beaver 202 100.00 — 202 100.00 202 Bedford 174 90.62 18 9.38 156 81.25 192 Berks 2,779 97.20 80 2.80 2,699 94.40 2,859 Bucks 1,129 96.41 42 3.59 1,087 92.83 1,171 Butler 86 100.00 — 86 100.00 86 Centre 378 93.10 28 6.90 350 86.21 406 Chester 1,402 94.73 78 5.27 1,324 89.46 1,480 Crawford 208 100.00 — 208 100.00 208 Cumberland 668 88.71 85 11.29 583 77.42 753 Dauphin 569 95.95 24 4.05 545 91.90 593 Delaware 244 85.31 42 14.69 202 70.63 286 Erie 112 100.00 — 112 100.00 112 Fayette 173 100.00 — 173 100.00 173 Franklin 509 72.10 197 27.90 312 44.19 706 Greene 105 84.00 20 16.00 85 68.00 125 Huntingdon 409 71.75 161 28.25 248 43.51 570 Lancaster 1,262 97.53 32 2.47 1,230 95.05 1,294 Luzerne 276 97.18 8 2.82 268 94.37 284 Lycoming 259 100.00 — 259 100.00 259 Mercer 74 100.00 — 74 100.00 74 Mifflin 429 92.06 37 7.94 392 84.12 466 Montgomery 1,197 100.00 — 1,197 100.00 1,197 Northampton 1,670 98.18 31 1.82 1,639 96.36 1,701 Northumberland 1,138 99.56 5 0.44 1,133 99.12 1,143 Philadelphia 3,333 99.97 1 0.03 3,332 99.94 3,334 Somerset 247 88.21 33 11.79 214 76.43 280 Washington 881 100.00 — 881 100.00 881 Wayne 18 100.00 — 18 100.00 18 Westmoreland 474 98.54 7 1.46 467 97.09 481 York 942 94.01 60 5.99 882 88.02 1,002 TOTAL 22,081 94.69 1,239 5.31 20,842 89.37 23,320
See also United States presidential elections in Pennsylvania
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