New York gubernatorial election 1792

The New York gubernatorial election of 1792 took place in April 1792, with the governor and lieutenant governor of New York being elected.

Candidates

For the Democratic Republican Party , George Clinton joined Pierre Van Cortlandt . For the federalists, John Jay competed with Stephen Van Rensselaer .

Result

John Jay received more votes than George Clinton, but due to formality the votes from Otsego , Tioga and Clinton Counties were stripped and unchecked, which gave George Clinton a small majority in the final official result.

Under the 1777 constitution , votes were reviewed by a joint committee of the New York Legislature , six from the Assembly and five from the Senate . The vote checkers were David Gelston , Thomas Tillotson , Melancton Smith , Daniel Graham, Pierre Van Cortlandt, Jr. , David McCarty, Jonathan N. Havens , Samuel Jones , Isaac Roosevelt , Leonard Gansevoort, and Joshua Sands . The state constitution states that the votes cast should be given to the secretary of state by the sheriff or his deputy. Otsego County's ballot papers were handed over by Sheriff Smith, but his term of office had expired and he only held the office until a successor was appointed. The Clinton County ballot box was handed over by a person without a deputation who received the ballot box from the local sheriff. The Tioga County ballot box was placed by a Special Deputy clerk appointed by the sheriff.

The review committee disagreed as to whether or not these ballots should count. This question has been referred to US Senators from New York, Federalist Rufus King and Republican Aaron Burr , for arbitration . King felt that all votes should be taken into account, whereas Burr felt that only Clinton County ballots should be allowed. As a result, a majority on the scrutiny committee (Gelston, Tillotson, Smith, Graham, Van Cortlandt, McCarty, Havens) rejected the ballots from all three counties and duly declared George Clinton elected governor with a majority of 108 votes.

The minority (Jones, Roosevelt, Gansevoort, Sands) protested in writing. In Otsego County, John Jay had a majority of around 400 votes, and if you subtract the small majority of Clinton votes in Tioga and Clinton Counties, Jay would have won the election. Clinton was accused of usurpation by the federalists and the scrutiny committee would have made a partial decision against the wishes of the electorate.

image	candidate	Political party	be right
image	candidate	Political party	number	percent
	George Clinton	Democratic Republican Party	8,440	50.32%
	John Jay	federalist	8,332	49.68%
total			16,772	100.00%

literature

Democrat's almanac, and political register, for 1840. , 66
History of Political Parties in the State of New-York by John S. Jenkins, Alden & Markham, Auburn NY, 1846, pp. 43ff
History of the City of New York by Martha J. Lamb, Burton Harrison, Cosimo, Inc., 2005, ISBN 978-1-59605-285-7 , pages 384ff
Memoirs and Letters of James Kent by William Kent, BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4264-9010-1 , pp. 44f
Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Complete by Matthew L. Davis, Echo Library, 2007, ISBN 978-1-4068-1867-3 , pp. 258f
The New-York state register, for 1845 by Orville Luther Holley, Volume 2, Page 101