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

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

, the

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

, the secretary state, the state comptroller, the

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

, the

state treasurer In the state and territorial governments of the United States, 54 of the 56 states and territories have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the office of New York State Treasurer in 1926, in which the duties were transfer ...

and the state engineer, as well as all members of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

and the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...

History

This was the first state election following

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. 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 {{New York state elections

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

1918 New York (state) elections