Talk:1888 West Virginia gubernatorial election

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Elections and Referendums

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Background[edit]

While unlikely that anyone will ever see this, this article needs some background information. WHY did the state supreme court rule so-and-so would remain governor? Was that a thing? Why did one candidate get more votes than the other but not become governor? Is it because no one reached 50% and there was a run-off that isn't mentioned? etc. 147.226.192.34 (talk) 00:16, 14 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'm working on a huge election-statistics project that includes this and other gubernatorial elections. I hope to be able to fix this article.

In the meantime, I can tell you this: the result was so close that a recount took place; in both the election and the recount, it took a long time for various counties to report their results. There was also a long investigation into accusations of election fraud. The state Supreme Court apparently ruled that the outgoing governor would remain in office until the dispute was resolved (this is considered normal procedure when the constitution or statute is unclear about who takes over at the end of a term when a successor hasn't been elected).

The figures given are from the initial results that showed Republican Nathan Goff winning the election. Eventually, after the recount, Democrat Aretas Fleming was (perhaps questionably) declared the winner. Rontrigger (talk) 08:21, 8 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]