Editor’s Note: This story has been updated since an initial version was published in 2015.
The 2020 election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is perhaps the craziest, most controversial election in US history.
We say perhaps because we don’t want to bog you down with superlatives when there have been so many truly zany moments in American elections.
Who could forget Howard Dean screaming like he’d lost a limb, or Rick Perry forgetting one of the three federal agencies he’d cut if elected?
Then there’s the bevy of oh-so-colorful characters, from Jello Biafra, Joan Jett Blakk and Wavy Gravy to Lee Mercer, Jack Shepard and Lyndon LaRouche. Did we mention Deez Nuts?
To say an election was the craziest or most controversial simply isn’t objective. Sure, Trump has claimed victory despite Biden’s projected win, questioned the voting system’s integrity and suggested he might not step down, but is that more controversial than Congress picking a president? That’s happened a few times.
We’ll let you decide. So, without any superlatives, here are 11 fascinating elections in American history:
1800: Prelude to a duel
The outcome of the 1800 contest between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams was so bizarre, the United States had to amend the Constitution.
Pre-12th Amendment, Electoral College members each had two votes for president, and there were no official tickets. Whoever garnered the most votes was president, and second place took the vice presidency.
Though problems with the system were apparent in 1796, the election of 1800 saw Jefferson tie with his Democratic-Republican “running mate” Aaron Burr. Both had 73 votes to Adams’ 65.
Congress would be called upon to break the tie. Enter Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first treasury secretary, founder of the Federalist Party and a man who did not care for Adams, Jefferson or Burr.
Nonetheless, Hamilton engaged in a campaign to convince the Federalists to vote for Jefferson, his lesser of three evils, writing in a letter that “Mr. Burr loves nothing but himself – thinks of nothing but his own aggrandizement.”
The House of Representatives didn’t easily arrive at its decision, casting 35 ballots in a week before finally voting to name Jefferson the victor and Burr the veep on February 7, 1801.
Making the election all the zanier, the rivalry between Burr and Hamilton would continue for more than three years before Burr, still the sitting vice president, killed Hamilton in a duel.
1824: ‘Corrupt bargain’
This one was odd from the get-go, if only for the fact that the Federalist Party was on the cusp of extinction and all four candidates were Democratic-Republicans.
Andrew Jackson, a war hero and statesman, won the popular vote by fewer than 39,000 ballots and took 99 Electoral College votes. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams secured 84, Treasury Secretary William Crawford won 41 and House Speaker Henry Clay had 37.
With no candidate earning a majority of the votes, the House again had to settle the deadlock, and Jackson was confident he would win the presidency given that he had won the popular vote and Electoral College. Because the House could choose among only three candidates, Clay got the boot.
We mentioned Clay was speaker, yes?
Well, after a month of horse trading, many of Clay’s supporters shifted their support to Adams, who would go on to win the majority of the House vote. Maryland, Illinois and Louisiana, which had cast most of their Electoral College votes for Jackson, as well as Kentucky, where Adams did not receive a single ballot in the popular vote, decided to back Adams.
After his inauguration, Adams selected Clay as his secretary of state. Jackson was furious and accused Adams and Clay of a “corrupt bargain.” He vacated his Senate seat and vowed to win the 1828 election as a Washington outsider.
Backed by his new party, the Democrats, Jackson made good on the promise, besting Adams, who by then was a leader in the National Republican Party.