Election to the United States House of Representatives in 1944

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On November 7, 1944, the United States ' House of Representatives was elected. In the state of Maine , the elections took place on September 11th. The election was part of the general election to the 79th United States Congress that year, which also elected a third of US Senators . At the same time the presidential election of 1944 took place, which the Democratic incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt won for the fourth time in a row. The election was overshadowed by the events of World War II . Due to the war, as in 1942, there were more postal voters from soldiers who were deployed outside the country.

At the time of the election, the United States consisted of 48 states. The number of MPs to be elected was 435. The distribution of seats was based on the 1940 census .

The Democrats gained 22 seats and were able to expand their absolute majority with 244 seats. On the other hand, the Republicans lost 20 seats and got 189 seats. The main reason the Democrats won over were questions about World War II. In contrast to the elections two years earlier, significantly more voters now supported the policy of the federal government. In doing so, they wanted to strengthen the position of the government and the president in World War II. Another point for the Democrats was increasing military success in both the European and Asian theater of war.

In the southern states in particular, the right to vote was restricted by laws that linked the right to vote to a certain tax revenue. As a result, poor whites, but above all many African-Americans, were excluded from the right to vote. These restrictions lasted until the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed in 1964.

Election result

Total: 435 (435)

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 79th 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 joined the Union 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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