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1908 Washington gubernatorial election

The 1908 Washington gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1908. Republican nominee Samuel G. Cosgrove defeated Democratic nominee John Pattison with 62.56% of the vote.


The 1908 Washington gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1908. Republican nominee Samuel G. Cosgrove defeated Democratic nominee John Pattison with 62.56% of the vote.

Primary elections were held on September 8, 1908. When Washington began using primary elections to nominate candidates, it used a form of ranked-choice voting although the original method was quite different from the modern understanding of RCV. If four or more candidates registered for a party's nomination for a particular office, voters in the primary were to make a first choice and second choice among the candidates. If a candidate received more than 40% of the first choice votes, he was declared the winner. Otherwise, the second choice votes were added to the first choice votes for all candidates and whoever had the highest number of combined votes was declared the winner, even if that was not a majority.

  • John Pattison, Mayor of Colfax
  • A.J. Splawn
  • William Blackman
  • Jimmie Durkin
  • Patrick S. Byrne
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic4,17932.35%
Democratic3,47926.93%
Democratic2,24017.34%
Democratic1,90714.76%
Democratic1,1158.63%
12,920100.00%

Since no candidate received more than 40% of the first choice votes, the second choice votes were counted.

PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic6,26824.30%
Democratic6,05023.46%
Democratic5,84422.66%
Democratic4,39817.05%
Democratic3,23012.52%
25,790100.00%
  • Samuel G. Cosgrove, attorney
  • Albert E. Mead, incumbent Governor
  • Henry McBride, former Governor
  • John D. Atkinson
  • William M. Ridpath
  • Robert B. Brown
  • Oscar H. Neil
  • J.W. Robinson
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican33,50932.85%
Republican32.35731.72%
Republican25,51925.02%
Republican4,0844.00%
Republican3,2983.23%
Republican1,4881.46%
Republican1,1361.11%
Republican6040.59%
101,995100.00%

Since no candidate received more than 40% of the first choice votes, the second choice votes were counted.

PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican57,66728.30%
Republican49,40224.24%
Republican47,59423.35%
Republican21,52710.56%
Republican10,7025.25%
Republican5,9732.93%
Republican5,8302.86%
Republican5,1082.51%
203,803100.00%

Major party candidates

  • Samuel G. Cosgrove, Republican
  • John Pattison, Democratic

Other candidates

  • George Boomer, Socialist
  • Arthur S. Caton, Prohibition
PartyCandidateVotes%.mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}±%
Republican110,19062.56%+11.21%
Democratic58,12633.00%−7.87%
Socialist4,3112.45%−2.68%
Prohibition3,5141.99%+0.07%
52,06429.56%
176,141100.00%
Republican hold+19.08%
  • Adams
  • Columbia
  • Douglas
  • Ferry
  • Franklin
  • Garfield
  • Lincoln
  • Okanogan
  • Spokane
  • Stevens
  • Walla Walla
  • Whitman
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