THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1657, 4 January 1917, Page 2

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

THE majority by which Mr Woodrow Wilson secured his return for a second term as President of the United States was 21 votes. The election of the President is not determined by the majority of votes cast, but by the mapority of ‘‘electors” chosen. Each State lias a/ certain number of electoral votes, according to the number of representatives it has in Congress. Of the 531 electoral votes, Mr Wilson secured 27(i, and Mr Hughes 255. None of the three minor candidates gained any “electoral” voles. The population vote cast for (he two candidates was close, Mr Wilson receiving- a total of 8,508,713 and Mr Hughes 8,100,401, making Mr Wilson's majority 403,312. The result of the election was not known in America until two days after the polls closed. Only twice before in the history of (he United (States of America has the result of a Presidential election been the subject of such long-drawn-out suspense. The first was the famous Tilden-Hayes contest, in 1870, which it finally took an Electoral Commission to decide. The second was the historic campaign of 1884, when it required three days to learn that Grover Cleveland had won New York State’s electoral votes ‘from James G. Blaine by a scant majority of 1,100 votes. The “electors” will meet on January Bth to name the new President, and Mr Wilson will commence his second term of office on March 4th.