November 6, 1860

1860 United States presidential election

Abraham Lincoln wins the 1860 presidential election

He won a decisive Electoral College majority with under 40% of the recorded popular vote — and lost his own home county to Douglas by 42 votes.

6 November 1860: four names, one night

On 6 November 1860, voters chose presidential electors in a four-way contest among Republican Abraham Lincoln, Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge, and Constitutional Unionist John Bell. The Democratic split left Lincoln dominant across the free states.

Lincoln followed the returns from Springfield, Illinois. Reports from Pennsylvania and then New York made his victory apparent during the night.

180 of 303

The final Electoral College result was Lincoln 180, Breckinridge 72, Bell 39 and Douglas 12, with 152 needed for a majority. Lincoln's popular vote was 1,867,198 — 39.8% in the American Presidency Project tabulation — so it was the electoral majority, not a popular one, that decided the contest.

His sweep of the free states was not quite total. New Jersey split its seven electors, four for Lincoln and three for Douglas; Lincoln lost his home county of Sangamon to Douglas by 42 votes while carrying the city of Springfield by 22.

What was and wasn't settled

Strictly, voters chose electors rather than a president that day; the electors would vote later, and Congress would not formally count the 180 votes until February 1861. Calling Lincoln elected on 6 November follows normal historical usage.

The consequences did not wait for the counting. Southern secession organizing accelerated immediately, and South Carolina ultimately seceded on 20 December.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

Popular-vote totals vary slightly among historical compilations, so figures should not be mixed across sources.
On November 6 voters legally chose electors rather than directly electing the president. Calling Lincoln 'elected' that day follows normal historical usage; the electoral votes were cast and counted later.