“I VOTED” boldly proclaims the red, white, and blue sticker worn earlier this month by tens of thousands of Marion County citizens affirming their fulfillment of a fundamental right. Collectively, Marion County votes were added to the great number of Hoosier votes cast for offices from the proverbial dog catcher to Governor. While Indiana’s popular vote elected local and state candidates to office, the popular vote for President and Vice President of the United States only elected a set of electors who will cast votes next month at the Statehouse, and when totaled with the votes of other electors from across the country will ultimately elect the American President and Vice President.
Indiana’s introduction to presidential elections began in 1816. In April of that year, Congress passed an enabling act authorizing the people of the Indiana Territory to form a constitution and state government which was done in the ensuing months. On August 5, 1816, Jonathan Jennings was elected governor, along with a General Assembly composed of 29 representatives and 10 senators, and William Hendricks was elected Indiana’s sole representative to the United States Congress. Following its organization, the General Assembly met on November 8, 1816, and pursuant to the U. S. Constitution, elected two United States Senators, James Noble and Waller Taylor, and on November 13 three presidential electors – Joseph Bartholomew, Jesse L. Hollman, and Thomas H. Blake – one for each senator and representative. Since there was no popular vote for the electors, the state legislature instructed the electors to vote for Democratic Republican candidates James Monroe for President and Daniel D. Tompkins for Vice President.
When the United States Congress met in joint session on February 12, 1817 to count the electoral votes for president and vice president, an objection was made to including Indiana’s three votes since its electors cast their votes prior to the state’s admission to the Union on December 11, 1816. After heated debate in which it was pointed out with the passage of the Indiana Enabling Act and the seating of Indiana’s two senators and a representative Congress had already recognized Indiana’s statehood, the objection was tabled, and Indiana’s electoral votes were accepted.
The Indiana General Assembly elected presidential and vice-presidential electors in 1820, but three years later the legislators “surrendered this power directly to the people” and in November 1824 white male Hoosier voters cast 7,343 votes for Andrew Jackson, 5,315 votes for Henry Clay, and 3,095 votes for John Quincy Adams. The popular vote elected five Jackson electors – John Carr of Clark Co; Jonathan McCarty of Fayette Co; Elias McNamee of Knox Co; Samuel Milroy of Washington Co; and David Robb of Gibson Co. If the popular vote had favored Henry Clay, elector William Watson Wick, president judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, would have been the first Marion County resident to actually cast a vote for president.
The 1832 presidential electoral slates of Democrat Andrew Jackson and National Republican Henry Clay assured Marion County of an elector. The Jackson ticket listed Indianapolis business and civic leader James Blake, and the Clay ticket listed Samuel Henderson who was president of the Indianapolis board of town trustees. When the popular vote was counted, Andrew Jackson carried Indiana with 31,551 votes to Henry Clay’s 15,472 votes and elector James Blake became the first Marion County resident to cast a meaningful vote for President. Four years later, state representative Austin W. Morris was the second Marion County voter to cast his vote as an elector when he voted for Whig Presidential candidate William Henry Harrison.
The turbulent politics of the pre-Civil War years was evident in the 1844 election when Marion County resident William W. Wick, an elector on the ticket for Henry Clay in 1824, was selected to be an elector from the 5th Congressional District on the ticket of Democrat James K. Polk. Another Marion County resident Hugh O’Neal was selected to be an elector from the 5th Congressional District on the ticket of Whig Henry Clay. Unlike 1824 when Clay lost Indiana, Wick got his chance to cast an electoral vote when electors met at the statehouse on December 5, 1844 after Polk had narrowly carried the popular vote in the November election.
Democrat Franklin Pierce won Indiana’s thirteen electoral votes in November 1852 when he received 95,340 popular votes to Whig Winfield Scott’s 80,901 votes. However, when the electors were supposed to convene at the statehouse on Wednesday, December 1, 1852, according to an act of Congress, only five electors were present, the others misled by a state law that fixed the date as the first Monday in December. The vacancies were filled according to law which included replacing elector William J. Brown of Marion County representing the 6th Congressional District with Indianapolis resident Alex F. Morrison and all the state’s electoral votes were cast for Pierce.
Following the Civil War, Indiana’s population increased, and two more Congressional representatives were added bringing the state’s electoral vote total to fifteen. Delegates to local and state party conventions elected congressional district and at-large electors for president and vice president. As the major county in various congressional district configurations, Marion County was generally assured of having a congressional elector, and at times an at-large elector, too.
Thirty-six years after women received the vote, Marjorie Snyder, vice chair of the Indiana Republican Party, became the first woman from Marion County to serve as an elector. On Monday, December 17, 1956 she met at the statehouse with the state’s other electors and as an at-large elector cast her vote for Dwight D. Eisenhower for president and Richard M. Nixon for vice president. Phyllis Cockram, a Republican Party worker and personnel director for the Indianapolis Police Department, was the second Marion County woman elected as an elector. Representing the 11th Congressional District, she cast her electoral vote in 1972 for Richard M. Nixon for president and Spiro T. Agnew for vice president. Over three decades would pass until another woman from Marion County would serve as an elector. Melissa Proffitt Reese, vice chair, Marion County Republican Central Committee, cast her vote for George W. Bush for president and Dick Cheney for vice president in 2004. Four years later, Cordelia Lewis-Burks, vice chair of the Indiana Democratic Party, became the first Black person from Marion County to be an elector and her vote went to Democrats Barack Obama for president and Joe Biden for vice president. In 2012, Pearl Swanigan, past president Indianapolis Black Republican Council, became the fifth woman and second Black person to be elected an elector from Marion County and she cast her vote for the Republican candidates for president and vice president.
While many voters believe their vote does not count for president, it is important in determining the electors. If Indiana distributed its electoral votes by congressional district like Maine and Nebraska, it might inspire greater confidence and voter turnout. In the most recent election, instead of all eleven electoral votes going to the Republican candidate, two votes would have been awarded to the Democratic candidate.
