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The 1940 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 5, 1940. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1940 United States presidential election . State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College , which selected the president and vice president .
Maine was won by Republican businessman Wendell Willkie of Indiana , who was running against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York . Willkie ran with Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon while Roosevelt ran with Henry A. Wallace of Iowa .
Willkie won Maine by a narrow margin of 2.33%, a swing of 11.66% to Roosevelt during an election where FDR lost 697 counties that had supported him four years earlier, mostly because of German Americans opposition to increasing "tension" with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler .[1] Contrariwise, the powerful "Anglophile" tendencies of Yankee and French-Canadian Maine meant that support for aid to the United Kingdom and France in ongoing World War II turned substantial numbers of normally rock-ribbed GOP voters to Roosevelt.[2] This was the first time Kennebec County had ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[3]
Results
Results by county
County
Wendell Lewis Willkie
Republican
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Earl Russell Browder
Communist
Total votes cast[5]
#
%
#
%
#
%
Androscoggin
10,394
34.99%
19,273
64.88%
40
0.13%
29,707
Aroostook
13,888
58.34%
9,877
41.49%
39
0.16%
23,804
Cumberland
29,795
52.47%
26,911
47.39%
76
0.13%
56,782
Franklin
4,548
58.47%
3,224
41.44%
7
0.09%
7,779
Hancock
8,539
66.36%
4,315
33.54%
13
0.10%
12,867
Kennebec
14,877
48.36%
15,861
51.56%
27
0.09%
30,765
Knox
6,530
60.76%
4,197
39.05%
20
0.19%
10,747
Lincoln
5,244
68.42%
2,415
31.51%
5
0.07%
7,664
Oxford
8,656
53.49%
7,502
46.36%
25
0.15%
16,183
Penobscot
18,674
55.79%
14,757
44.09%
40
0.12%
33,471
Piscataquis
3,806
52.05%
3,499
47.85%
7
0.10%
7,312
Sagadahoc
3,504
43.30%
4,575
56.54%
13
0.16%
8,092
Somerset
7,526
53.42%
6,534
46.38%
28
0.20%
14,088
Waldo
5,170
61.56%
3,214
38.27%
14
0.17%
8,398
Washington
6,253
43.65%
8,048
56.18%
25
0.17%
14,326
York
16,547
42.59%
22,276
57.33%
32
0.08%
38,855
Totals
163,951
51.10%
156,478
48.77%
411
0.13%
320,840
See also
References
^ Dunn, Susan; 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler–the Election Amid the Storm , p. 107 ISBN 0300190867
^ Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority ; p. 93 ISBN 1400852293
^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States , 1868-2004, p. 68 ISBN 0786422173
^ "1940 Presidential General Election Results – Maine" . U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 23 December 2013 .
^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964 ; p. 203 ISBN 0405077114