87
votes
Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
You could call this a 'large scale protest'. Following the Presidential election held on 6 November 1860, I assume once the votes were counted and reported by telegraph it was known by 7 or 8 November ...
- 5,611
33
votes
Was Nixon's Vietnam claim right before the 1968 election true?
Unless a particular Air Force General 'fesses up in an autobiography, the first question is unanswerable.
On the second question, absolutely that was happening. It had been happening for years, ...
- 71.3k
26
votes
Were there large scale protests after earlier presidential elections in the US?
I don't recall hearing about protests after Obama's election, or inauguration.
George W Bush's election took until December 12th to become definite because of the lawsuits over the Florida voting ...
- 30.4k
24
votes
Accepted
Why is there a difference in ordinal numbers of UK General Elections and Parliaments? Was a UK Parliament ever formed without an election?
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was created in 1801, by the merger of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Union. The previous Parliament (the last Parliament of ...
- 77k
20
votes
Accepted
Did Wilson's 'He kept us out of war' really win the 1916 Presidential Election?
Wilson's election was about a generation before scientific polling, so we don't and probably can't ever really know that.
However, it was a fact that he ran hard on that issue. Its also a fact that, ...
- 115k
19
votes
Accepted
Were there elections in France under the absolute monarchy?
Yes.
Absolutism is rarely, if ever, as absolute as the name suggests. Even after the ascension of Louis XIV, the Estates of France continued to meet in assemblies. The most famous and powerful was of ...
- 96.9k
19
votes
Why did people in the USSR participate in elections?
From a comment by Sassa NF:
In real life I asked my parents why they would still go and vote - I asked this after USSR collapsed. The answer was exactly what I said - "are you mad? It would ...
- 931
16
votes
Accepted
Were there any elections under the Vichy regime?
As per the decree law of 16 November 1940, elections were only allowed for the "smallest communes".
This law was published in the Journal Officiel 12 December 12, 1940 and
...provided for the ...
- 107k
15
votes
Why did people in the USSR participate in elections?
When you are talking about participation and the numbers of votes for the candidate, you should take into account that these numbers were mostly fake. Nobody really counted. Another thing which is ...
- 38.2k
14
votes
Was Reagan Disliked By Establishment Republicans?
The currently accepted answer is a good one*. However, it leaves out one very important beef that the Republican Establishment had with Reagan: racial politics.
The Liberal wing of the Republican ...
- 115k
12
votes
Why did people in the USSR participate in elections?
Even in USA your participation in elections is recorded: as you come to the booth, your name is marked in the logs. It was most certainly recorded in USSR, and, because of the "propiska" (the ...
- 4,602
12
votes
Have primary voters in US overseas territories or their delegates ever had a noteworthy influence in any primary election or convention?
Yes and no. I'd say mostly no.
One thing you should realize on questions about primaries is that the primary system itself is very new. Up until about the 1970's, state primaries and caucuses were ...
- 115k
10
votes
Accepted
Has there ever been a US election that flipped as many state seats as the 2010 midterm elections?
Federal Election Results
According to The American Presidency Project, the 2010 midterm election holds 2nd place in having flipped the most U.S. House and U.S. Senate seats.
By position, the top ...
- 6,137
10
votes
Has a government ever been elected with the full 100% of the votes?
In any election that is described as "unanimous", the winner achieved 100% of the vote. George Washington was unanimously elected twice (by the electoral college), and remains the only US president to ...
- 201
10
votes
In the election of 1800, why did Burr end up with as many electoral votes as Jefferson, rather than one fewer?
Just Sit Right Back and You'll Hear a Tale
You may or may not be old enough to remember the animated Saturday Morning reboot of Gilligan's Island. One episode of the show had the 7 castaways holding ...
- 4,331
9
votes
Was Nixon's Vietnam claim right before the 1968 election true?
Wikipedia suggest the yearly trail capacity in 1968 was between 10000 (1964) tons, 81000 (1968 reserved offensive supplies) tons and 40000 (end 1970) tons. It usefully doesn’t specify which ton. The ...
- 14.6k
9
votes
Accepted
How did encasillado work?
Here are a couple of descriptions from academic sources. To put it very simply, it all boils down to a classic case of corruption and patronage. It's not necessarily the case that the system gave &...
- 17.9k
8
votes
Accepted
How was the lower chamber of the Japanese Imperial Diet elected under the Meiji constitution?
Male citizens over the age of 25 were eligible to vote, except for members of the Imperial Army or Navy and the Imperial family. Originally, suffrage was limited to only those who had paid 15 yen in ...
- 96.9k
8
votes
Accepted
Were UK Parliamentary constituencies ever altered before 1832?
Until the seventeenth century there were frequent alterations, but almost all for new places to be enfranchised, which I suspect isn't the sort of change you're thinking of.
If you go back long ...
- 9,072
8
votes
Was Hitler ever a member of the Reichstag?
I searched the internet, and found no reference to Hitler's being a Reichstag deputy or sponsoring legislation up to 1933. This tallies with my personal recollection of no such activity. A commenter ...
- 104k
8
votes
Accepted
Were there any local or regional elections in Nazi Germany?
Under the terms of the Enabling Act of 1933 the Reichstag on March 31, 1933, passed the First Gleichschaltung [Synchronization] Law which:
[D]issolved the diets of all Länder (except the recently ...
- 71.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Why was Truman considered a heavy underdog in the 1948 election?
I know someone will complain that I do not cite sources but I am running out of time to type this and the following are easily verifiable by internet search
Truman was the Democratic party candidate ...
- 5,611
7
votes
Accepted
Has a government ever been elected with the full 100% of the votes?
99.8 percent in Ethiopia.
100 percent, with 99.97 percent turnout in North Korea. The article explains the purpose of the NK elections, which includes accounting for defectors.
Then there are cases ...
- 16.5k
7
votes
In multimember constituencies of the House of Commons, how many votes did each voter have?
I am not going to try and answer for the earlier periods (at least not just now - writing this from the train...) Prior to the Reform Acts, properly contested elections were of course less common.
By ...
- 9,072
7
votes
Origin of French electoral tie-breaking mechanism (oldest candidate wins)
Expanding on my two earlier comments, the last archive link you posted offers the explanation on pages 344-345. Loosely summarized:
Regnault proposed a motion to introduce the tie breaking mechanism, ...
- 23.1k
7
votes
Accepted
Who conducted the first "straw poll" in U.S. election politics, and when was it conducted?
It seems that the confusion in this case stems from a bad edit to the Wikipedia page on 18 June 2015 where the name of the newspaper that conducted the first poll was changed from the Harrisburg ...
- 77k
6
votes
Has a government ever been elected with the full 100% of the votes?
François "Papa Doc" Duvalier was confirmed as president for a further 6 years in the 1961 Haitian presidential referendum with 100% of the vote. The result was largely seen as fraudulent, as was the ...
- 1,116
6
votes
Accepted
In Great Britain, did the Liberal Unionists and Conservatives ever compete for the same seats in elections?
Yes. There was at least one case from the very start, during the 1886 election. This was of course the birth year of the Liberal Unionists, and they formed a close alliance with the Conservatives ...
- 96.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible