1976 United States presidential election in California explained

See main article: 1976 United States presidential election.

Election Name:	1976 United States presidential election in California
Country:	California
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1972 United States presidential election in California
Previous Year:	1972
Next Election:	1980 United States presidential election in California
Next Year:	1980
Turnout:	81.53% (of registered voters) 0.60 pp 57.32% (of eligible voters) 7.20 pp^[1]
Election Date:	November 2, 1976
Image1:	Gerald Ford presidential portrait (cropped 2).jpg
Nominee1:	Gerald Ford
Party1:	Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:	Michigan
Running Mate1:	Bob Dole
Electoral Vote1:	45
Popular Vote1:	3,882,244
Percentage1:	49.35%
Nominee2:	Jimmy Carter
Party2:	Democratic Party (United States)
Home State2:	Georgia
Running Mate2:	Walter Mondale
Electoral Vote2:	0
Popular Vote2:	3,742,284
Percentage2:	47.57%
Map Size:	400px
President
Before Election:	Gerald Ford
Before Party:	Republican Party (United States)
After Election:	Jimmy Carter
After Party:	Democratic Party (United States)

The 1976 United States presidential election in California took place on November 2, 1976, as part of the 1976 United States presidential election. State voters chose 45 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

California narrowly voted for the Republican incumbent, Gerald Ford, over the Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter.

Ford won the state with a plurality of 49.35% of the vote to Carter's 47.57%, a victory margin of 1.78%, which made California almost 4% more Republican than the nation-at-large.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time that a Democrat has won the counties of Amador, El Dorado, Lassen, Madera, Placer, Shasta, Sierra and Yuba,^[2] Carter is also the last candidate from either party to carry Los Angeles by only a plurality. This also remains the last election in which a Republican presidential candidate won at least 40% of the vote in San Francisco, and the last time that county was not the most Democratic in the state. This is also the last time when a Democrat has won the presidency without winning California and the last time that the state would vote Republican in a close election. The state would not vote for a losing candidate again until 2000, and for the loser of the popular vote until 2004.

Results

1976 United States presidential election in California^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Gerald Ford (incumbent)	3,882,244	49.35%	45
	Democratic	Jimmy Carter	3,742,284	47.57%	0
	No party	Eugene McCarthy (write-in)	58,412	0.74%	0
	Independent	Roger MacBride	56,388	0.72%	0
	American Independent	Lester Maddox	51,098	0.65%	0
	Peace and Freedom	Margaret Wright	41,731	0.53%	0
	Independent	Peter Camejo	17,259	0.22%	0
	Independent	Gus Hall	12,766	0.16%	0
	No party	Thomas J. Anderson (write-in)	4,565	0.06%	0
	No party	Jules Levin (write-in)	222	0.00%	0
	No party	Write-ins	74	0.00%	0
	No party	Ben Bubar (write-in)	34	0.00%	0
	No party	Ernest Miller (write-in)	26	0.00%	0
	No party	Frank Taylor (write-in)	14	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			7,867,117	100.00%	45
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Gerald Ford Republican		Jimmy Carter Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
County		%		%		%		%	Total votes cast
	Alameda		155,280		38.09%		235,988		57.89%	16,413	4.02%	-80,708	-19.80%	407,681
	Alpine		225		50.34%		189		42.28%	33	7.38%	36	8.06%	447
	Amador		3,699		46.13%		4,037		50.35%	282	3.52%	-338	-4.22%	8,018
	Butte		28,400		51.77%		24,203		44.12%	2,251	4.11%	4,197	7.65%	54,854
	Calaveras		3,695		49.08%		3,607		47.91%	226	3.01%	88	1.17%	7,528
	Colusa		2,733		52.74%		2,340		45.16%	109	2.10%	393	7.58%	5,182
	Contra Costa		126,598		49.35%		123,742		48.24%	6,194	2.41%	2,856	1.11%	256,534
	Del Norte		2,481		45.29%		2,789		50.91%	208	3.80%	-308	-5.62%	5,478
	El Dorado		12,472		47.69%		12,763		48.80%	919	3.51%	-291	-1.11%	26,154
	Fresno		72,533		48.10%		74,958		49.71%	3,314	2.19%	-2,425	-1.61%	150,805
	Glenn		4,094		52.67%		3,501		45.04%	178	2.29%	593	7.63%	7,773
	Humboldt		18,034		41.58%		23,500		54.18%	1,838	4.24%	-5,466	-12.60%	43,372
	Imperial		10,618		49.94%		10,244		48.18%	400	1.88%	374	1.76%	21,262
	Inyo		3,905		58.23%		2,635		39.29%	166	2.48%	1,270	18.94%	6,706
	Kern		58,023		52.29%		50,567		45.57%	2,371	2.14%	7,456	6.72%	110,961
	Kings		8,263		49.65%		8,061		48.44%	318	1.91%	202	1.21%	16,642
	Lake		5,462		44.46%		6,374		51.88%	449	3.64%	-912	-7.42%	12,285
	Lassen		3,007		42.97%		3,801		54.32%	190	2.71%	-794	-11.35%	6,998
	Los Angeles		1,174,926		47.78%		1,221,893		49.69%	62,258	2.53%	-46,967	-1.91%	2,459,077
	Madera		6,844		45.96%		7,625		51.20%	423	2.84%	-781	-5.24%	14,892
	Marin		53,425		52.52%		43,590		42.86%	4,700	4.62%	9,835	9.66%	101,715
	Mariposa		2,012		46.61%		2,093		48.48%	212	4.91%	-81	-1.87%	4,317
	Mendocino		9,784		45.49%		10,653		49.53%	1,072	4.98%	-869	-4.04%	21,509
	Merced		14,842		46.08%		16,637		51.65%	729	2.27%	-1,795	-5.57%	32,208
	Modoc		1,917		51.20%		1,733		46.29%	94	2.51%	184	4.91%	3,744
	Mono		1,600		58.80%		1,025		37.67%	96	3.53%	575	21.13%	2,721
	Monterey		40,896		51.02%		36,849		45.97%	2,408	3.01%	4,047	5.05%	80,153
	Napa		20,839		51.83%		18,048		44.89%	1,318	3.28%	2,791	6.94%	40,205
	Nevada		8,170		48.40%		7,926		46.95%	785	4.65%	244	1.45%	16,881
	Orange		408,632		62.16%		232,246		35.33%	16,555	2.51%	176,386	26.83%	657,433
	Placer		18,154		45.03%		21,026		52.16%	1,131	2.81%	-2,872	-7.13%	40,311
	Plumas		2,884		43.94%		3,429		52.25%	250	3.81%	-545	-8.31%	6,563
	Riverside		97,774		49.24%		96,228		48.46%	4,556	2.30%	1,546	0.78%	198,558
	Sacramento		123,110		44.63%		144,203		52.27%	8,563	3.10%	-21,093	-7.64%	275,876
	San Benito		3,398		50.87%		3,122		46.74%	160	2.40%	276	4.13%	6,680
	San Bernardino		113,265		49.49%		109,636		47.90%	5,984	2.61%	3,629	1.59%	228,885
	San Diego		353,302		55.74%		263,654		41.60%	16,839	2.66%	89,648	14.14%	633,795
	San Francisco		103,561		40.31%		133,733		52.06%	19,594	7.63%	-30,172	-11.75%	256,888
	San Joaquin		50,277		49.60%		48,733		48.08%	2,351	2.32%	1,544	1.52%	101,361
	San Luis Obispo		27,785		51.17%		24,926		45.91%	1,587	2.92%	2,859	5.26%	54,298
	San Mateo		117,338		50.63%		102,896		44.40%	11,507	4.97%	14,442	6.23%	231,741
	Santa Barbara		60,922		50.83%		55,018		45.91%	3,904	3.26%	5,904	4.92%	119,844
	Santa Clara		219,188		49.46%		208,023		46.94%	15,927	3.60%	11,165	2.52%	443,138
	Santa Cruz		31,872		43.09%		37,772		51.06%	4,325	5.85%	-5,900	-7.97%	73,969
	Shasta		17,273		45.63%		19,200		50.72%	1,381	3.65%	-1,927	-5.09%	37,854
	Sierra		680		43.15%		841		53.36%	55	3.49%	-161	-10.21%	1,576
	Siskiyou		7,070		48.37%		7,060		48.31%	485	3.32%	10	0.06%	14,615
	Solano		26,136		42.40%		33,682		54.64%	1,826	2.96%	-7,546	-12.24%	61,644
	Sonoma		50,555		47.72%		50,353		47.52%	5,044	4.76%	202	0.20%	105,952
	Stanislaus		32,937		44.83%		38,448		52.34%	2,080	2.83%	-5,511	-7.51%	73,465
	Sutter		8,745		54.21%		6,966		43.18%	420	2.61%	1,779	11.03%	16,131
	Tehama		6,110		44.81%		6,990		51.27%	535	3.92%	-880	-6.46%	13,635
	Trinity		1,989		45.66%		2,172		49.86%	195	4.48%	-183	-4.20%	4,356
	Tulare		31,864		54.52%		25,551		43.72%	1,027	1.76%	6,313	10.80%	58,442
	Tuolumne		6,104		46.94%		6,492		49.93%	407	3.13%	-388	-2.99%	13,003
	Ventura		82,670		53.20%		68,529		44.10%	4,201	2.70%	14,141	9.10%	155,400
	Yolo		18,376		42.42%		23,533		54.33%	1,408	3.25%	-5,157	-11.91%	43,317
	Yuba		5,496		44.74%		6,451		52.51%	338	2.75%	-955	-7.77%	12,285
Total	3,882,244	49.35%	3,742,284	47.57%	242,589	3.08%	139,960	1.78%	7,867,117

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Notes and References

Web site: Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018 . California Secretary of State . 2022-05-05.
Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
Web site: 1976 Presidential General Election Results - California. 2008-08-25 . Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas.