In 1876, the presidental election has quite a bit in common with the presidential election of 2000. Hayes ran against Democrat Samuel J. Tilden in the first episode of historical repetition. In particular, the 1876 election involved an Electoral College disagreement which was not exactly covered by the U.S. Constitution. It had not been addressed before, but it will again. It was, in the end, resolved by an ad hoc Electoral Commission created by Congress and was made up of 5 Supreme Court justices, 5 senators, and 5 House members. After about 16 weeks of frenzied argument, a president was finally chosen three days before the day the inauguration was scheduled. By an 8 to 7 margin, the Electoral Commission gave all of the contested 20 electoral ballots to Hayes, letting the Republican to win the presidency by one electoral vote, 185-184.
Both dates shared a few other details. Florida and, to a lesser extent, Oregon played a central role in the controversy. The snowball effect of the argument looked like it might bring the electoral count in other states, such as Wisconsin, into play. Different candidates won the Electoral College and the popular vote.
Except for the 185-184 result in Hayes-Tilden, the Electoral College has never been closer than in Gore-Bush. The process in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida in 1876 was murkier than the results from Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Duval, and other Florida counties in 2000. In 1876 the Republicans on the Electoral Commission, including Garfield, intervened locally and directly to throw out Democratic ballots. In 2000 it seemed a lot easier to just not count them. Just like in 2000, the Republicans of 1876-1877 refused to lose, even if it was wrong. In those days they were at least promoting a better cause. The Electoral Commission of 1876-1877 was supposed to reach a nonpartisan, impartial decision on Hayes and Tilden. It failed. The Supreme Court in 2000 did not do so either.
