See main article: 2004 United States presidential election.
| Election Name: | 2004 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia |
| Country: | District of Columbia |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 2000 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia |
| Previous Year: | 2000 |
| Next Election: | 2008 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia |
| Next Year: | 2008 |
| Election Date: | November 2, 2004 |
| Image1: | Image:John F. Kerry.jpg |
| Nominee1: | John Kerry |
| Party1: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Home State1: | Massachusetts |
| Running Mate1: | John Edwards |
| Electoral Vote1: | 3 |
| Popular Vote1: | 202,970 |
| Percentage1: | 89.18% |
| Nominee2: | George W. Bush |
| Party2: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | Texas |
| Running Mate2: | Dick Cheney |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 21,256 |
| Percentage2: | 9.34% |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| President | |
| Before Election: | George W. Bush |
| Before Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
| After Election: | George W. Bush |
| After Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
The 2004 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia took place on November 2, 2004, as part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Prior to the election, Washington DC was considered to be a jurisdiction Kerry would win or safely blue.
As expected, The District of Columbia voted by an extremely large margin in favor of the Democratic candidate John F. Kerry. John F. Kerry won DC by a margin of victory of 79.84% over the incumbent George W. Bush, more than any state. At the time, this was also the largest Democratic margin of victory over a Republican candidate in the history of the district, but has since been surpassed by all presidential elections since. The greatest victory margin of these subsequent years was in 2016. Such victory margins may perhaps be attributed to the fact that D.C. only encompasses an urban core area (and those are generally very liberal in nature). A recent San Francisco study based on the 2004 presidential election exit polls, ranked Washington, D.C. as the 4th most liberal city in the country.[1] This information supports the fact that the District of Columbia has never voted for a Republican since the ratification of the 23rd Amendment.
As of 2020, this marks the last time that a Democratic presidential nominee would receive less than 90% of the vote in the District of Columbia.
There were 12 news organizations that made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.[2]
| D.C. Political Report | ||
| Associated Press | ||
| CNN | ||
| Cook Political Report | ||
| Newsweek | ||
| New York Times | ||
| Rasmussen Reports | ||
| Research 2000 | ||
| Washington Post | ||
| Washington Times | ||
| Zogby International | ||
| Washington Dispatch |
| 2004 United States presidential election in the District of Columbia | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | ||
| Democratic | John Kerry | John Edwards | 202,970 | 89.18% | 3 | ||
| Republican | George W. Bush (incumbent) | Dick Cheney (incumbent) | 21,256 | 9.34% | 0 | ||
| Independent | Ralph Nader | Peter Camejo | 1,485 | 0.65% | 0 | ||
| Green | David Cobb | Pat LaMarche | 737 | 0.32% | 0 | ||
| Libertarian | Michael Badnarik | Richard Campagna | 502 | 0.22% | 0 | ||
| Others | Others | Others | 636 | 0.28% | 0 | ||
| Totals | 227,586 | 100.00% | 3 | ||||
| Voter turnout | ??? | — | |||||
| Ward | John F. Kerry | George W. Bush | Ralph Nader | David Cobb | Michael Badnarik | Harris | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward 1 | 90.92% | 23,727 | 6.71% | 1,751 | 0.99% | 258 | 0.73% | 191 | 0.33% | 85 | 0.10% | 26 |
| Ward 2 | 82.99% | 20,691 | 14.89% | 3,713 | 0.95% | 238 | 0.36% | 104 | 0.42% | 90 | 0.04% | 11 |
| Ward 3 | 78.79% | 28,358 | 19.32% | 6,953 | 0.84% | 304 | 0.29% | 139 | 0.39% | 103 | 0.04% | 16 |
| Ward 4 | 92.37% | 30,341 | 6.56% | 2,156 | 0.48% | 159 | 0.26% | 87 | 0.09% | 30 | 0.05% | 17 |
| Ward 5 | 93.73% | 27,348 | 5.21% | 1,520 | 0.49% | 143 | 0.31% | 90 | 0.07% | 21 | 0.06% | 17 |
| Ward 6 | 86.87% | 25,654 | 11.31% | 3,339 | 0.74% | 220 | 0.37% | 110 | 0.36% | 105 | 0.06% | 17 |
| Ward 7 | 95.58% | 25,914 | 3.71% | 1,006 | 0.35% | 94 | 0.14% | 38 | 0.03% | 9 | 0.05% | 14 |
| Ward 8 | 96.08% | 19,872 | 3.33% | 689 | 0.29% | 59 | 0.12% | 25 | 0.04% | 9 | 0.05% | 11 |
See main article: List of 2004 United States presidential electors.
Technically the voters of D.C. cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. D.C. is allocated 3 electors. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 3 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 3 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.
The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.
The following were the members of the Electoral College from D.C. All were pledged to and voted for John Kerry and John Edwards.