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In 2016, 320 electoral votes belonged to states (and Maine's 2nd congressional district) that voted more Republican than the national average. That is all the states Trump won and ME-2 plus Minnesota and New Hampshire.

This was 59.5% of all electoral votes. Was this a record for the number of electoral votes more Republican than the national average. Was it ever more?

I know that it didn't happen since 1988 at least. But was there ever a blowout record where the electoral vote total (320) was broken?

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  • Reagan's landslide had 309. This one was 320.
    – Michael Mormon
    Aug 21, 2020 at 13:35
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    Are you looking for the record in terms of percentage (59.5%), or in terms of raw electoral votes (320)?
    – CDJB ♦
    Aug 21, 2020 at 13:40
  • Raw electoral votes please.
    – Michael Mormon
    Aug 21, 2020 at 13:48
  • Didn't Trump get 306 electoral college votes? Where does 320 come from?
    – Jontia
    Aug 21, 2020 at 15:42
  • Yes. But this is in relation to how the country voted. This goes with each state Trump won plus New Hampshire and Minnesota. That is because he lost them less than he lost the national popular vote in percentage points.
    – Michael Mormon
    Aug 21, 2020 at 18:07

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No - there have been a few other elections where this figure has been broken or equalled.

The most recent was 1968, where states totalling 333 electoral votes voted for Nixon more than the national average of 43.42%. These were the states won by Nixon (301) minus Florida, North & South Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee (57) plus Washington, New York, Connecticut, and Kentucky (89).

Before that, the election in 1944 equalled this figure of 320, slightly more impressively, as there were only 531 total electoral votes compared to 538 today. The states were all those which voted for Dewey (99) plus Michigan, New Jersey, Missouri, Pennsylvanis, Maryland, Idaho, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, Minnesota, & New Mexico (221).

Before that, as the number of total electoral votes begins to dwindle, it becomes fairly impossible for this record to be broken in terms of raw votes. Nevertheless, it was broken in percentage terms, for example in 1892 (64.8%), 1888 (64.0%), 1880 (61.8%), and 1876 (60.4%).

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