The closest presidential election in American history came in 1876, with Rutherford B. Hayes winning by a single electoral vote, 185-184. This, however, was only after an unwritten compromise in which Hayes was awarded 20 electoral votes from Southern states in exchange for removing federal troops from those states (ending Reconstruction and essentially kickstarting the Jim Crow era). What Northern Democrat, the sitting governor of New York, was thus defeated for the presidency?
Samuel Jones TILDEN