National Affairs: Election Night

For weeks the speculation and suspense mounted and the questions multiplied. The answers went into the ballot box on Election Day. In a few hours they began to pour out. Here, measured in Eastern Standard Time, is how the ballot boxes told one of the greatest stories of this generation:

8 to 9 O'Clock. Three big campaign questions got early tentative answers:

1) How solid is the South? Virginia, whose Democratic Boss Harry Byrd had refused to work for Stevenson, gave Eisenhower an 8:30 lead of 48,000 to 34,000; Richmond, expected to go Republican, gave Eisenhower a big lead (21,866 to 14,314). In Florida, Ike not only led in the big resort cities (full of transplanted Yankees) but ran only slightly behind Stevenson in industrial and thoroughly Democratic Duval County(Jacksonville).

2) Will soldiers and veterans vote for a general? A fast count of the soldier vote in areas of New Jersey showed Eisenhower leading 2-1.

3) Will the minority vote swing away from the Democrats? One predominantly Jewish precinct in Philadelphia gave Stevenson a heavier lead than it gave Truman in 1948.

Even the expected was coming unexpectedly fast. The Hartford Courant declared at 7:40 p.m. that Ike had swept Connecticut. Eisenhower carried Bridgeport (pop. 159,000) by three votes—the first time since 1924 that a Republican candidate had carried this industrial city. At 8 o'clock. Republican National Chairman Arthur Summerfield looked at the results, said it might be a landslide for Ike. Less than 5% of the total vote was in by then, but almost every indicator was beginning to point Ike's way.

9 to 10. The Republican landslide in Connecticut and Ike's breakthrough in the South were confirmed. By the time a third of Connecticut's votes were in, Ike had jumped into a lead of 240,000 to 217,000; at the two-thirds mark Ike was piling up a 57% majority (v. Tom Dewey's bare 50% in 1948). From there on, the Republican Connecticut sweep was swift and devastating. At 9:30, Democratic Senator Bill Benton conceded the victory of Republican William Purtell and gloomily predicted a nationwide victory for Ike. Minutes later. Democrat A. A. Ribicoff conceded to Republican Prescott Bush in Connecticut's other Senate race.

In the South, Ike's breakthrough widened. With a third of Florida's votes recorded, Eisenhower was leading by 56%, sweeping through the big cities, rolling up the Gold Coast and whittling the normal Democratic majority in the ham-and-hominy belt of Leon County. In Virginia, with half the.votes counted, the race was already over; Ike was carrying Richmond by more than 2 to 1, carrying Roanoke and Lynchburg by 2 to 1, edging ahead even in rural Cumberland and Powhatan Counties. For the first time since 1928. Virginia was swinging Republican, 111,000 to 88,000. In Maryland, the story was the same: at the halfway mark Ike led with a 55% majority, including a lead in the Democratic stronghold of Baltimore.

A few Democratic fortresses held out. Georgia gave Stevenson its twelve electoral votes. South Carolina, which gave Ike a narrow lead after 47% of the returns were in, swung back to Stevenson.