1960 United States presidential election

=== Popular votes ===

==== Alabama ====
{{See also|1960 United States presidential election in Alabama|United States presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote#1960 Alabama results ambiguity}}

The situation in Alabama was controversial, as the number of popular votes that Kennedy received in Alabama is difficult to determine because of the unusual situation there. Instead of having the voters use one vote to choose from a slate of electors, the Alabama ballot had voters choose the [[US Presidential Electors|electors]] individually with up to 11 votes. In such a situation, a given candidate is traditionally assigned the popular vote of the elector who received the most votes. For instance, all 11 Republican candidates in Alabama were pledged to Nixon, and the 11 Republican electors received anywhere from as low as 230,951 votes (for George Witcher) to as high as 237,981 votes (for Cecil Durham); Nixon is therefore assigned 237,981 popular votes from Alabama.

The situation was more complicated on the Democratic side. The Alabama statewide Democratic primary had chosen 11 candidates for the Electoral College, five of whom were pledged to vote for Kennedy, but the other six of whom were unpledged and could therefore vote for anyone that they chose to be president. All 11 of these Democratic candidates won in the general election in Alabama, from as low as 316,394 votes for Karl Harrison, to as high as 324,050 votes for [[Frank M. Dixon]]. All six of the unpledged Democratic electors ended up voting against Kennedy, and instead voted for the Dixiecrat segregationist [[Harry F. Byrd]]. The number of popular votes that Kennedy received is therefore difficult to calculate. There are typically three methods that can be used. The first method, which is mostly used and the method used on the results table on this page below, is to assign Kennedy 318,303 votes in Alabama (the votes won by the most popular Kennedy elector, C.G. Allen), and to assign 324,050 votes in Alabama (the votes won by the most popular unpledged Democratic elector, Frank M. Dixon) to unpledged electors. However, using this method gives a combined voting total that is much higher than the actual number of votes cast for the Democrats in Alabama. The second method that can be used is to give Kennedy 318,303 votes in Alabama, and count the remaining 5,747 Democratic votes as unpledged electors.

The third method would give a completely different outlook in terms of the popular vote in both Alabama and in the USA overall. The third method is to allocate the Democratic votes in Alabama between Kennedy electors and unpledged electors on a percentage basis, giving 5/11s of the 324,050 Democratic votes to Kennedy (which comes to 147,295 votes for Kennedy) and 6/11s of the 324,050 Democratic votes to unpledged electors (which comes to 176,755 votes for unpledged electors). Bearing in mind that the highest Republican/Nixon elector in Alabama got 237,981 votes, this third method of calculating the Alabama vote means that Nixon wins the popular vote in Alabama, and wins the popular vote in the USA overall, as it would give Kennedy 34,049,976 votes nationally, and Nixon 34,108,157 votes nationally.<ref name="trende">{{cite news| title = Did JFK Lose the Popular Vote?| publisher = RealClearPolitics| date = October 22, 2012| url = http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/10/19/did_jfk_lose_the_popular_vote_115833.html| access-date = October 23, 2012 }}</ref>

==== Georgia ====
{{see also|1960 United States presidential election in Georgia}}
The number of popular votes Kennedy and Nixon received in Georgia is also difficult to determine because voters voted for 12 separate electors.<ref name=":3">{{cite journal|last1=Novotny|first1=Patrick|title=John F. Kennedy, the 1960 Election, and Georgia's Unpledged Electors in the Electoral College|journal=Georgia Historical Quarterly|date=2004|volume=88|issue=3|pages=375–397|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14658910&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=February 15, 2018}}</ref> The vote totals of 458,638 for Kennedy and 274,472 for Nixon reflect the number of votes for the Kennedy and Nixon electors who received the highest number of votes. The Republican and Democratic electors receiving the highest number of votes were [[outliers]] from the other 11 electors from their party. The average vote totals for the 12 electors were 455,629 for the Democratic electors, and 273,110 for the Republican electors. This shrinks Kennedy's election margin in Georgia by 1,647 votes, to 182,519.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Gaines| first=Brian J.| date=March 2001| title=Popular Myths About Popular Vote–Electoral College Splits| journal=PS: Political Science & Politics| page=74| url=http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/PopularMythsPopularVote-Gaines.pdf| access-date=April 2, 2006| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060523234634/http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/PopularMythsPopularVote-Gaines.pdf| archive-date=May 23, 2006| url-status=dead}}</ref>