100 years ago in Spokane: Presidential election marked an ‘ungracious year,’ with electorate ‘sundered politically’

From our archive, 100 years ago

“Presidency Still In Doubt,” shouted The Spokesman-Review’s banner headline, “Result Depends On Four Close States.”

Minnesota, North Dakota, New Mexico and California were still too close to call. Incumbent Woodrow Wilson had locked up 251 electoral votes and Charles Evans Hughes had locked up 247. The country would have to wait one more day before it knew who its president would be.

There was no drama in either Washington or Idaho: both were won by Wilson.

Spokane County, too, went for Wilson. This must have caused chagrin at the The Spokesman-Review, which had enthusiastically backed Republican Hughes. An editorial said of the still uncertain national outcome, “we didn’t know whether to smile or weep, shine or snow.”

“In this ungracious year,” said the SR, state after state “danced to the hurdy-gurdy and stood on its head.”

The editors noted the “spottiness, or streakiness” of the results, meaning that states adjoining each other, “which might have been expected to swing together, or at least not be widely sundered politically, checkered the political map with Democratic and Republican squares in black and white alternation.”