A presidential election was held in Kentucky from November 11–13, 1816 as part of the 1816 United States presidential election. The Democratic-Republican ticket of the U.S. secretary of state James Monroe and the governor of New York Daniel D. Tompkins was elected unopposed. The Federalist Party failed to nominate a candidate. Monroe won the national election handily, defeating the senior U.S. senator from New York Rufus King, who received 34 votes from unpledged electors despite not being a candidate. In Kentucky, 30 candidates ran in three four-member electoral districts, all pledged to Monroe; complete popular vote returns for all but the 2nd district have been lost.
General election
Summary
Kentucky chose twelve electors from three electoral districts, each represented by four members. Returns from the 1st district have been lost. From the 3rd district, only the returns from Fayette County survive. In contrast, returns from all but two counties in the 2nd district have been located.
Nineteenth century election laws required voters to vote directly for members of the Electoral College rather than for president. This sometimes resulted in small differences in the number of votes cast for electors pledged to the same presidential candidate if some voters did not vote for all the electors nominated by a party. In Kentucky, voters in each district had the option to vote for four out of between seven and fifteen candidates—all Democratic-Republicans pledged to Monroe and Tompkins. The below table calculates Monroe's statewide popular vote by adding the votes for the most popular elector in each district. In counties where the district winner received fewer votes than one or several candidates, this method may understate Monroe's statewide total.
Results by district
The below table counts the result for the most popular elector pledged to Monroe in each district with surviving returns. It thus differs slightly from the county results table, which calculates the Democratic-Republican vote from the results for the most popular Monroe elector in each county.
Results by county
The below table counts the result for the most popular elector pledged to Monroe in each county with surviving returns. It thus differs slightly from the district results table, which calculates the Democratic-Republican vote from the results for the most popular Monroe elector in each district.