1996 United States presidential election in South Dakota

Main article: 1996 United States presidential election

1996 United States presidential election in South Dakota

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Nominee Bob Dole Bill Clinton Ross Perot Party Republican Democratic Independent Alliance Reform Home state Kansas Arkansas Texas Running mate Jack Kemp Al Gore James Campbell [a] Electoral vote 3 0 0 Popular vote 150,543 139,333 31,250 Percentage 46.49% 43.03% 9.65%

County Results Dole   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Clinton   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%

President before election Bill Clinton Democratic Elected President Bill Clinton Democratic

The 1996 United States presidential election in South Dakota took place on November 5, 1996. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose three electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

South Dakota was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator Al Gore as vice president, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp. ^[1]

South Dakota weighed in for this election as 12 points more Republican than the national average. The presidential election of 1996 was a very multi-partisan election for South Dakota, with more than ten percent of the electorate voting for third-party candidates. Most counties turned out in this election for Dole. The major exceptions were the overwhelmingly Democratic majority-Native American counties of Shannon, Todd, Buffalo and Dewey, and a number of East River counties near Minnesota including Brown County, and Sioux Falls's Minnehaha County, which gave mostly pluralities to Clinton. In his second bid for the presidency, Ross Perot led the newly reformed Reform Party to gain over nine percent of the votes in South Dakota, and to pull in support nationally as the most popular third-party candidate to run for United States Presidency in recent times.

As of the 2024 presidential election ^[update] , this is the last election in which South Dakota was seriously contested, as well as the last time Beadle County, Bon Homme County, Brule County, Charles Mix County, Deuel County, Grant County, Jerauld County, Kingsbury County, Sanborn County, and Union County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. ^[2]

Results

1996 United States presidential election in South Dakota
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Bob Dole	150,543	46.49%	3
	Democratic	Bill Clinton (incumbent)	139,333	43.03%	0
	Independent	Ross Perot	31,250	9.65%	0
	Libertarian	Harry Browne	1,472	0.45%	0
	Independent	Howard Phillips	912	0.28%	0
	Independent	Dr. John Hagelin	316	0.10%	0
Totals			323,826	100.00%	3
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered)

Results by county

County [3]	Bob Dole Republican		Bill Clinton Democratic		Ross Perot Independent		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Aurora	709	47.05%	664	44.06%	119	7.90%	15	1.00%	45	2.99%	1,507
Beadle	3,670	42.77%	3,984	46.43%	842	9.81%	85	0.99%	-314	-3.66%	8,581
Bennett	539	47.07%	507	44.28%	93	8.12%	6	0.52%	32	2.79%	1,145
Bon Homme	1,428	41.56%	1,569	45.66%	391	11.38%	48	1.40%	-141	-4.10%	3,436
Brookings	5,112	45.35%	5,105	45.29%	979	8.69%	76	0.67%	7	0.06%	11,272
Brown	6,801	41.35%	7,913	48.11%	1,622	9.86%	111	0.67%	-1,112	-6.76%	16,447
Brule	981	40.81%	1,091	45.38%	281	11.69%	51	2.12%	-110	-4.57%	2,404
Buffalo	134	20.94%	465	72.66%	35	5.47%	6	0.94%	-331	-51.72%	640
Butte	1,947	53.24%	1,132	30.95%	541	14.79%	37	1.01%	815	22.29%	3,657
Campbell	623	64.23%	202	20.82%	140	14.43%	5	0.52%	421	43.41%	970
Charles Mix	1,711	42.40%	1,913	47.41%	390	9.67%	21	0.52%	-202	-5.01%	4,035
Clark	998	44.51%	956	42.64%	272	12.13%	16	0.71%	42	1.87%	2,242
Clay	2,008	36.04%	2,980	53.48%	505	9.06%	79	1.42%	-972	-17.44%	5,572
Codington	4,995	45.18%	4,722	42.71%	1,239	11.21%	99	0.90%	273	2.47%	11,055
Corson	533	41.00%	539	41.46%	216	16.62%	12	0.92%	-6	-0.46%	1,300
Custer	1,740	51.83%	1,122	33.42%	418	12.45%	77	2.29%	618	18.41%	3,357
Davison	3,371	44.78%	3,364	44.69%	737	9.79%	56	0.74%	7	0.09%	7,528
Day	1,282	36.29%	1,840	52.08%	395	11.18%	16	0.45%	-558	-15.79%	3,533
Deuel	955	40.66%	1,090	46.40%	275	11.71%	29	1.23%	-135	-5.74%	2,349
Dewey	657	33.20%	1,114	56.29%	195	9.85%	13	0.66%	-457	-23.09%	1,979
Douglas	1,210	63.38%	524	27.45%	161	8.43%	14	0.73%	686	35.93%	1,909
Edmunds	1,055	45.67%	973	42.12%	263	11.39%	19	0.82%	82	3.55%	2,310
Fall River	1,636	47.31%	1,357	39.24%	417	12.06%	48	1.39%	279	8.07%	3,458
Faulk	726	52.27%	493	35.49%	165	11.88%	5	0.36%	233	16.78%	1,389
Grant	1,782	43.64%	1,805	44.21%	471	11.54%	25	0.61%	-23	-0.57%	4,083
Gregory	1,208	49.65%	923	37.94%	286	11.76%	16	0.66%	285	11.71%	2,433
Haakon	887	68.81%	284	22.03%	110	8.53%	8	0.62%	603	46.78%	1,289
Hamlin	1,352	49.02%	1,101	39.92%	285	10.33%	20	0.73%	251	9.10%	2,758
Hand	1,187	52.34%	803	35.41%	250	11.02%	28	1.23%	384	16.93%	2,268
Hanson	801	52.22%	541	35.27%	170	11.08%	22	1.43%	260	16.95%	1,534
Harding	537	68.41%	151	19.24%	90	11.46%	7	0.89%	386	49.17%	785
Hughes	4,469	56.80%	2,788	35.43%	531	6.75%	80	1.02%	1,681	21.37%	7,868
Hutchinson	2,177	55.66%	1,285	32.86%	409	10.46%	40	1.02%	892	22.80%	3,911
Hyde	493	54.54%	309	34.18%	95	10.51%	7	0.77%	184	20.36%	904
Jackson	646	55.26%	423	36.18%	88	7.53%	12	1.03%	223	19.08%	1,169
Jerauld	530	38.86%	656	48.09%	151	11.07%	27	1.98%	-126	-9.23%	1,364
Jones	463	63.51%	184	25.24%	75	10.29%	7	0.96%	279	38.27%	729
Kingsbury	1,297	43.22%	1,357	45.22%	320	10.66%	27	0.90%	-60	-2.00%	3,001
Lake	1,966	38.48%	2,526	49.44%	593	11.61%	24	0.47%	-560	-10.96%	5,109
Lawrence	4,430	46.92%	3,568	37.79%	1,308	13.85%	136	1.44%	862	9.13%	9,442
Lincoln	4,201	48.92%	3,643	42.42%	682	7.94%	61	0.71%	558	6.50%	8,587
Lyman	726	47.67%	646	42.42%	130	8.54%	21	1.38%	80	5.25%	1,523
Marshall	861	38.33%	1,185	52.76%	189	8.41%	11	0.49%	-324	-14.43%	2,246
McCook	1,292	47.45%	1,166	42.82%	245	9.00%	20	0.73%	126	4.63%	2,723
McPherson	1,080	62.25%	463	26.69%	182	10.49%	10	0.58%	617	35.56%	1,735
Meade	4,984	54.32%	2,960	32.26%	1,133	12.35%	99	1.08%	2,024	22.06%	9,176
Mellette	417	52.26%	302	37.84%	67	8.40%	12	1.50%	115	14.42%	798
Miner	571	38.35%	739	49.63%	170	11.42%	9	0.60%	-168	-11.28%	1,489
Minnehaha	27,432	44.24%	29,790	48.05%	4,425	7.14%	357	0.58%	-2,358	-3.81%	62,004
Moody	1,024	37.01%	1,443	52.15%	284	10.26%	16	0.58%	-419	-15.14%	2,767
Pennington	19,293	54.32%	12,784	36.00%	3,149	8.87%	290	0.82%	6,509	18.32%	35,516
Perkins	983	58.10%	460	27.19%	225	13.30%	24	1.42%	523	30.91%	1,692
Potter	979	57.52%	534	31.37%	181	10.63%	8	0.47%	445	26.15%	1,702
Roberts	1,646	37.99%	2,186	50.45%	474	10.94%	27	0.62%	-540	-12.46%	4,333
Sanborn	630	43.81%	647	44.99%	151	10.50%	10	0.70%	-17	-1.18%	1,438
Shannon	253	11.08%	1,926	84.33%	87	3.81%	18	0.79%	-1,673	-73.25%	2,284
Spink	1,651	45.00%	1,636	44.59%	360	9.81%	22	0.60%	15	0.41%	3,669
Stanley	795	57.53%	454	32.85%	121	8.76%	12	0.87%	341	24.68%	1,382
Sully	592	57.76%	321	31.32%	106	10.34%	6	0.59%	271	26.44%	1,025
Todd	482	24.21%	1,380	69.31%	108	5.42%	21	1.05%	-898	-45.10%	1,991
Tripp	1,680	53.64%	1,088	34.74%	337	10.76%	27	0.86%	592	18.90%	3,132
Turner	1,970	48.63%	1,682	41.52%	385	9.50%	14	0.35%	288	7.11%	4,051
Union	2,234	42.90%	2,378	45.67%	555	10.66%	40	0.77%	-144	-2.77%	5,207
Walworth	1,461	52.38%	939	33.67%	366	13.12%	23	0.82%	522	18.71%	2,789
Yankton	3,885	44.02%	3,775	42.77%	1,073	12.16%	93	1.05%	110	1.25%	8,826
Ziebach	375	40.32%	483	51.94%	62	6.67%	10	1.08%	-108	-11.62%	930
Totals	150,543	46.49%	139,333	43.03%	31,250	9.65%	2,700	0.83%	11,210	3.46%	323,826

Counties that flip from Democratic to Republican

• Aurora
• Davison
• Hanson
• Spink

Counties that flip from Republican to Democratic

• Corson
• Grant
• Ziebach

See also

• Presidency of Bill Clinton
• United States presidential elections in South Dakota

Notes

1. On the California, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas election ballots, James Campbell of California, Perot's former boss at IBM, was listed as a stand-in vice-presidential candidate until Perot decided on Pat Choate as his choice for Vice President.

References

1. "1996 Presidential General Election Results – South Dakota". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
2. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
3. Our Campaigns; SD US Presidential Election Race, November 05, 1996