Election Day

   How Media Influenced the 1960 Presidential Election

Election Day

All the months on the campaign trail have amounted to this day. The media's influence on the 1960 Presidential election will show, once the votes are all accounted for.

The Votes

On Election Day on November 8th, 1960, over 68,450,990 ballots were cast. Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, voted in Whittier, California. JFK and his wife, Jacqueline, voted in Boston, Massachusetts. As the polls were closed and the ballots were started to be counted, everyone waited.

The Votes Coming In

As the night continued, supporters gathered at their parties headquarters for they hope for a victory celebration. As the tallies add up minute by minute and hour by hour.

It was getting obvious that the race was going to be a close one. After early encouragement reports for Nixon, Kennedy started to pull ahead for the lead. In some states, it becomes a see-saw battle, with a different candidate leading ever so often. As morning rose on the east coast, newspaper headlines declared John F. Kennedy as the President-elect. Yet the election is still very close, as he appears to have won by less than one percent of the popular vote. 

Outcome of the Race



John F. Kennedy was elected as the 35th President of the United States. However, many Republicans objected to this outcome. They cited voting irregularity in Texas, where Kennedy won by 46,000 votes, and Illinois, by 9,000 votes. If Nixon had won those 2 states, he would have won by 2 votes in the Electoral College. Although Nixon later conceded on November 9th, 1960, his supporters persisted. They called Nixon to contest the results. There were rampant rumors that Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago used his political machine to stuff ballot boxes in Cook County, a common practice of Chicago mayors back in the day.

On November 9th, 1960, Nixon officially conceded. He told Earl Mazo, his friend, and journalist, that "our country cannot afford the agony of a constituional crisis." Despite Nixon's requests, the Republican Party still decided to continue contesting the results. Republicans officials pursued recounts and investigations in 11 states. In the end, Nixon ended up losing Hawaii to Kennedy after the recount. 

In later years in an autobiography, Nixon claimed that widespread fraud happened in Illinois and Texas. The disputes about the 1960 election continue to this day, though the discrepancies aren't enough to reverse the outcome. John F. Kennedy continues to be the 35th President of the United States. Ironically, Kennedy's assassinator is disputed as well, after Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m.

I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box.

~ Richard Nixon

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