Did JFK lose the popular vote?

If you award the Democratic popular vote in the state wholly to Byrd rather than to Kennedy — again, probably more defensible than awarding the popular vote in the state wholly to JFK — Nixon wins the popular vote by 205,476 votes. (However, even with Nixon gaining Alabama’s 11 electoral votes, Kennedy’s election would have stood: His EV margin would have shrunk only from 303-219 to 292-230.)

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But the bottom line in Alabama is that there really were Democrats who supported the national ticket, and there really were Democrats who supported the Dixiecrats. Had there been options for 11 Kennedy electors and 11 free electors, thousands of votes would have been cast for both, as was the case in Mississippi (although Nixon might well have won the state in that event). Allocating all of the popular votes to Kennedy or Byrd ignores this reality.

You could also award Byrd 324,000 votes in addition to Kennedy’s 318,000 votes (and Nixon’s 237,000 votes), but then you are allocating hundreds of thousands more votes than there were voters.

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