1840 United States presidential election in Indiana

1840 United States presidential election in Indiana

←  1836 November 2, 1840 1844  →

←  IL KY  →

Nominee William Henry Harrison Martin Van Buren Party Whig Democratic Home state Ohio New York Running mate John Tyler N/A [a] Electoral vote 9 0 Popular vote 65,237 51,691 Percentage 55.0% 45.0%

County Results Harrison   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Van Buren   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Unknown/No vote

President before election Martin Van Buren Democratic Elected President William Henry Harrison Whig

A presidential election was held in Indiana on November 2, 1840 as part of the 1840 United States presidential election. ^[1] The Whig ticket of the former major general William Henry Harrison and the former U.S. senator from Virginia John Tyler defeated the incumbent Democratic president Martin Van Buren. ^[2] Harrison defeated Van Buren in the national election with 234 electoral votes. ^[3]

General election

Summary

Indiana chose nine electors on a statewide general ticket. Nineteenth-century election laws required voters to vote directly for members of the Electoral College rather than for president. This sometimes resulted in small differences in the number of votes cast for electors pledged to the same presidential candidate, if some voters did not vote for all the electors nominated by a party. ^[4] This table compares the votes for the most popular elector pledged to each ticket, to give an approximate sense of the statewide result.

1840 United States presidential election in Indiana ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	William Henry Harrison John Tyler	63,237	55.01	0.96
	Democratic	Martin Van Buren N/A [a]	51,691	44.96	0.93
	Liberty	James G. Birney Thomas Earle	30	0.03	0.03
Total votes			114,958	100.00

Results

1840 United States presidential election in Indiana ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes
	Whig	James H. Cravens	63,237
	Whig	John W. Payne	63,237
	Whig	Caleb B. Smith	63,237
	Whig	Richard W. Thompson	63,235
	Whig	Joseph L. White	63,235
	Whig	William Herod	63,227
	Whig	Joseph G. Marshall	63,225
	Whig	Samuel C. Sample	63,217
	Whig	McCarty Jonathan	63,216
	Democratic	William Hendricks	51,691
	Democratic	Robert Dale Owen	51,690
	Democratic	Thomas J. Henley	51,688
	Democratic	Andrew Kennedy	51,688
	Democratic	John L. Robinson	51,687
	Democratic	William J. Peaslet	51,676
	Democratic	John M. Lenon	51,642
	Democratic	Henry Secrest	51,494
	Democratic	Tilghman Howard	51,339
	Unpledged	George W. Ewing	351
	Unpledged	George Boon	196
	Unpledged	J. M. Simmons	51
	Liberty	Lesmon Basye	30
	Liberty	James Clayton	30
	Liberty	Cyrus Hamilton	30
	Liberty	Thomas Hicklin	30
	Liberty	Thomas Johns	30
	Liberty	Thomas Maxwell	30
	Liberty	William Smith	30
	Liberty	Samuel Stephenson	30
	Liberty	Daniel Worth	30
Total			≈114,958

See also

• United States presidential elections in Indiana

Notes

1. No candidate was formally nominated.

1. Dubin 2002, p. xvi.
2. Riker & Thornbrough 1960, pp. 29–37.
3. "1840 Electoral College Results". National Archives. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
4. Lampi n.d.; Ratcliffe 2014, p. 57.

Bibiliography

• "1840 Electoral College Results". National Archives. Retrieved October 7, 2025.
• Dubin, Michael J. (2002). United States Presidential Elections, 1788–1860: The Official Results by County and State. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. p. xvi.
• Lampi, Philip J. (n.d.). "Electoral College". A New Nation Votes. American Antiquarian Society. Retrieved October 5, 2025.
• Ratcliffe, Donald J. (Spring 2014). "Popular Preferences in the Presidential Election of 1824". Journal of the Early Republic. 34 (1): 45–77. JSTOR   24486931.
• Riker, Dorothy; Thornbrough, Gayle, eds. (1960). Indiana Election Returns, 1816–1851. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau.