2008 United States presidential election in Vermont

• 2008 Vermont Democratic presidential primary
• 2008 Vermont Republican presidential primary

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

{{Main|Statewide opinion polling for the 2008 United States presidential election#Vermont|l1=Statewide opinion polling for the 2008 United States presidential election: Vermont}}

Obama won every single pre-election poll, and each with a double-digit margin of victory. The final 3 polls averaged Obama leading 59% to 35%.{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/POLLS/PRESIDENT/2008/pollsa.php?fips=50|title=Election 2008 Polls|website=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections}}

Obama raised a total of $2,071,271 in the state. McCain raised $206,395.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/MapAppState.do?stateName=VT&cand_id=P00000001|title=Presidential Campaign Finance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090324090132/http://www.fec.gov/DisclosureSearch/MapAppState.do?stateName=VT&cand_id=P00000001|archive-date=24 March 2009}}

Neither campaign spent any money on advertising in Vermont.{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/map/ad.spending/ | work=CNN | title=Map: Campaign Ad Spending - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com | access-date=May 26, 2010}} Neither campaign visited the state.{{cite news| url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/map/candidate.visits/ | work=CNN | title=Map: Campaign Candidate Visits - Election Center 2008 from CNN.com | access-date=May 26, 2010}}

Vermont was once the quintessential Yankee Republican state. It identified with the newly formed GOP in 1856 and remained in the Republican fold for over 130 years. From 1856 to 1988, it only voted for a Democrat once, in Lyndon Johnson's 44-state landslide of 1964. Vermont and Maine were the only states that Franklin D. Roosevelt didn't carry in any of his four elections.

However, the brand of Republicanism practiced in Vermont has historically been a moderate one. Coupled with an influx of more liberal newcomers from out of state, this made Vermont considerably friendlier to Democrats as the national GOP moved further to the right. After narrowly supporting George H. W. Bush in 1988, Vermont gave Bill Clinton a 16-point margin in 1992. Republicans have not seriously contested the state since then, and Vermont is now reckoned as part of a bloc of solidly blue states spanning most of the Northeast.

The 2008 race kept this tradition going. Obama won with 67% of the vote to McCain's 30%. The state was called for Obama almost as soon as the polls closed, and was the first state called for Obama. Obama was the first Democrat to get over 70% of the vote in any Vermont county since 1964, and the first for either party since 1972.

Vermont was Obama's second-best state and his best in the contiguous 48 states; only topped by the staggering 71% he received in Hawaii, the state where he was born. The Obama-Biden ticket won every county in the state, including several northeastern counties which had a history of voting Republican.{{cite news|url=http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html|title=CHAPTER 13: Toward the 21st Century|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 26, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041103020223/http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/history/ch13.htm|archive-date=November 3, 2004}} Obama also performed better than John Kerry in every county. As a measure of how Republican Vermont once was, George W. Bush was at the time the only Republican to win the White House without carrying Vermont.

• Others include Cynthia McKinney, Green; Róger Calero, Socialist Workers; Gloria La Riva, Socialism and Liberation; and Brian Moore, Liberty Union.{{cite web |url= http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=191875 |title=Our Campaigns - VT US President Race - Nov 04, 2008 |work=ourcampaigns.com |year=2009 |access-date=2015-08-25}}

[[File:Vermont County Flips 2008.svg|thumb|County Flips: {{col-begin}}

{{col-2}}

Democratic

{{legend|#92c5de|Hold}}

{{legend|#0671b0|Gain from Republican}}

{{col-2}}

Republican

{{legend|#f48882|Hold}}

{{col-end}}]]

;Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Essex (largest town: Lunenburg)

Due to the state's low population, only one congressional district is allocated. This district, called the at-large district because it covers the entire state, is thus equivalent to the statewide election results.

{{Main|List of 2008 United States presidential electors}}

Technically the voters of Vermont, as they do in every state, cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Vermont is allocated three electors because it has 1 congressional district and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 3 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 3 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them.{{cite web|url=http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_ec.htm |title=Electoral College |access-date=2008-11-01 |publisher=California Secretary of State |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081030041546/http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_ec.htm |archive-date=October 30, 2008 }} An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 15, 2008, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were elected at large as members of the Electoral College from the state. All three were pledged to Barack Obama and Joe Biden:{{Cite web|url=http://vermont-elections.org/|title=Elections {{!}} Home {{!}} Vermont Secretary of State|website=vermont-elections.org|access-date=2016-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210125755/http://vermont-elections.org/|archive-date=2014-02-10|url-status=dead}}

1. Claire Ayer
2. Euan Bear
3. Kevin Christie

• United States presidential elections in Vermont

{{Reflist|2}}

• [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=191875 General election results]
• [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=346184 Democratic primary]
• [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=346185 Republican primary]
• [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=421598 Liberty Union primary]

{{2008 United States elections}}

{{2008 United States presidential election}}

{{State results of the 2008 U.S. presidential election}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:2008 United States Presidential Election In Vermont}}

Vermont

Category:United States presidential elections in Vermont

Category:2008 Vermont elections