Election to the United States House of Representatives 1840

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From July 6, 1840, House representatives were elected on various election days in the United States . The election was part of the general election to the 27th United States Congress that year, which also elected a third of US Senators . The presidential election of 1840 , won by Whig Party candidate William Henry Harrison , also took place at the same time .

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 26 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 242. The distribution of seats in the House of Representatives was based on the 1830 census . In the elections, the Democratic Party lost 27 seats and thus its previous absolute majority. The winner of the election was the United States Whig Party, which was able to win 33 seats and with 142 seats for the first time was able to win an absolute majority. The Anti-Masonic Party lost all previously held mandates and left the House of Representatives. The reasons for the election result were the consequences of the economic crisis that broke out in 1837, which was blamed on the federal government under Democratic President Martin Van Buren and the general unpopularity of Van Buren, who was then voted out of office.

Women and slaves were neither eligible nor eligible to vote. Free African Americans were also excluded from voting in many states .

Election result

Total: 242

The results of the last election two years earlier are in brackets. Changes during the legislative period that do not affect the elections themselves are not included in these figures, but are noted in the article on the 27th Congress in the section on the members of the House of Representatives under the relevant names of the representatives. The same applies to elections in states that did not join the Union until after the beginning of the legislative period. As a result, the sources sometimes contain different information, as changes during the legislative period were sometimes incorporated into the figures and sometimes not.

See also

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