Election 100 years ago went down to the wire

Just like today, the Modesto of 1916 was preparing itself for a presidential election. Unlike today, California was expected to be a battleground state between the Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson and Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes.

While President Wilson faced no major opposition in his bid for the Democrats nomination, the Republicans were still trying to recover from the disastrous results of 1912, when former President Teddy Roosevelt ran against his hand-picked successor, President William Howard Taft.

Roosevelt, having lost any chance at the Republican nomination because of rules he had put in place to assure Taft’s nomination in 1908, bolted the party and joined the Progressive party and split the Republican vote. To mollify both the right and left wing of their party, the Republicans nominated Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, former governor or New York, whose greatest attribute was not having been involved in politics for the last six years since being named to the court. President Wilson used the United States’ noninvolvement in World War I as his campaign slogan: “He Kept Us Out of War.”

There was no certainty as to who would win the election and right up to Election Day, Nov. 7, 1916.

In Modesto, speakers for both candidates gave speeches at the Auditorium in downtown. To keep Modesto voters up to date on the latest election results, the Evening News set up a big screen on the “Schafer building at the corner of Tenth and L streets. The news from the Eastern states would begin to come in over the News leased wire by 3:30 in the afternoon and from that time on until 1 o’clock in the morning every phase of the election … will flash on the screen every few seconds.” (Modesto Evening News. Nov. 6, 1916)

Election Day anticipation was so intense that crowds began gathering at Tenth and L in the morning hours before the first results would be shown. By 3:30 p.m., the street was so packed that it was closed off as more people came pouring in and many stayed for the duration. The results showed Hughes winning New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois while Ohio and the entire South went with Wilson. The results were showing as tight a race as had ever been run, with Wilson taking New Hampshire by just 56 votes. As the night wore on, California was clearly going to decide the outcome. Over 930,000 votes were cast in the state that then held 13 electoral votes; whoever won California would win the White House.

Early results showed a narrow win for Wilson by 3,773 votes. In spite of that, Hughes was claiming victory and charges of voter fraud in Chicago were spurring demands for recounts in some states. In California and Stanislaus County, a vote that close meant the votes would now be counted again. Five days after the election, the recount began as lawyers from both parties watched the Stanislaus County ballot counters do their work. After a couple of days, Wilson gained 22 votes, winning the county by roughly 1,000 votes out of the 12,000 cast, and California went to Wilson by 3,370 votes.

Six months after President Wilson ran with the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War,” he declared war on Germany. The United States would turn the tide and the Allies would achieve their victory on Nov. 11, 1918.

Hughes would become secretary of state in 1921 and chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1930; he served there until retiring in 1941.

This story was originally published October 26, 2016 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Election 100 years ago went down to the wire."