Presidential Balloting
It had been clear from the first day of the convention that a silver ticket would be chosen. After Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, it was unclear how easily he could obtain the nomination. Many state delegations were bound by their own state conventions. Some states bound the delegates on the first three or four ballots, others just for the first ballot.
On the first ballot, Bland led the pack with 235 votes. Non-voting sound money Democrats represented 178 delegate votes and placed second. Bryan placed third with 137, with the other c
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Presidential Balloting
It had been clear from the first day of the convention that a silver ticket would be chosen. After Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, it was unclear how easily he could obtain the nomination. Many state delegations were bound by their own state conventions. Some states bound the delegates on the first three or four ballots, others just for the first ballot.
On the first ballot, Bland led the pack with 235 votes. Non-voting sound money Democrats represented 178 delegate votes and placed second. Bryan placed third with 137, with the other candidates trailing.
Over the second and third ballots, Bland and Bryan absorbed delegates from the rest of the pack. On the second ballot, Bryan gained CA, MI, SC, and WY. Bland gained AL and VA to maintain his lead of roughly 100 votes. On the third ballot, Bryan gained CO and OR on a ballot with little movement. The critical ballot was the fourth, in which several delegations were freed from their state convention restrictions. Bryan took AL, ID, KS, and NV from Bland and assumed the lead.
Bryan was nominated on the fifth ballot. Bland withdrew, and his delegates mostly voted for Bryan. In fact, Bryan won all but 36 delegates outside of the northeast corridor of states, capturing the delegates formerly supporting Boies, Blackburn, McLean, and Matthews. The sound money abstentions placed second with 162, followed by Pattison with 95 and 21 for all others.
Presidential Balloting, DNC 1896 |
Candidate: Ballot | 1st | 2d | 3d | 4th | 5th |
William J. Bryan NE | 137 | 197 | 219 | 280 | 652 |
Richard P. Bland MO | 235 | 281 | 291 | 241 | 11 |
Robert E. Pattison PA | 97 | 100 | 97 | 97 | 95 |
Horace Boies IA | 67 | 37 | 36 | 33 | -- |
J.C.S. Blackburn KY | 82 | 41 | 27 | 27 | -- |
John R. McLean OH | 54 | 53 | 54 | 46 | -- |
Claude Matthews IN | 37 | 34 | 34 | 36 | -- |
Not Voting | 178 | 160 | 162 | 161 | 162 |
Others | 43 | 27 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
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