The 1918 New York state election was held on November 5, 1918, to elect the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, the lieutenant governor, the secretary state, the state comptroller, the attorney general, the state treasurer and the state engineer, as well as all members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate.

History

This was the first state election following

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. The primaries were held on September 3.

Republican primary

Democratic primary

Prohibition primary

The Prohibition state conference in July had designated State Chairman Olin S. Bishop to run in the primary for Governor, but on August 31 the enrolled party members received a circular from Bishop urging them to vote for the incumbent Republican Governor Charles S. Whitman by writing his name in the ballot. The friends of the incumbent Republican Comptroller Eugene M. Travis gathered enough signatures to put him on the Prohibition primary ballot, and the regular candidate Claude V. Stowell also urged the party members to vote for Travis.

Socialist primary

All Socialist primary candidates won without opposition.

Result

The Democratic candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor were elected with the remainder of the Republican ticket. The incumbents Whitman and Schoeneck were defeated. The incumbents Hugo, Travis, Wells and Williams were re-elected. Obs.: *"Blank, void and scattering" votes: 61,052 (Governor) *The number for Travis is total on Republican and Prohibition tickets. The votes given for Governor were used to define the ballot access, and are given separately.The total number of votes for Whitman, given by the NYT as "995,094" is more than the total of the separate votes stated here, given by the ''New York Red Book'' for Republican and Prohibition tickets, because it was possible to vote for any candidate writing the name in the "no-party" column. To define the winner of the election, all votes were counted; to define ballot access, only the votes received on the party's ticket.

Notes

Sources

*Early primary returns
''WHITMAN NAMED TO FIGHT SMITH FOR GOVERNORSHIP''
in NYT on September 4, 1918 *Primary results
''WHITMAN'S VOTE 295,471''
in NYT on September 13, 1918 *Result in Westchester County
''WHITMAN GAINS ONE VOTE IN THIS CITY''
in NYT on November 14, 1918 *Soldiers' vote in New York City
''SOLDIERS ADD 7,419 TO SMITH PLURALITY''
in NYT on December 18, 1918 *Result
''SMITH IS SWORN IN AS GOVERNOR''
in NYT on December 31, 1918 *Vote totals taken from The New York Red Book 1919