On Nov. 4 voters will choose the 44th President of the United States. Before the wheels of history turn again, here is the second part of our look back at presidential elections in Morehouse Parish.

In 1844, the same year Morehouse was created by the Louisiana Legislature, Democrat James K. Polk ran on a platform of Manifest Destiny and defeated Whig Party candidate Henry Clay to become the 11th President. He reflected on the election in his inaugural address:

“This most admirable and wisest system of well-regulated self-government among men ever devised by human minds has been tested by its successful operation … and … will, I fervently hope and believe, endure for ages to come and dispense the blessings of civil and religious liberty to distant generations.”

In Saturday’s edition of the Enterprise, we learned Morehouse went with John Davis over Calvin Coolidge in 1924, Al Smith over Herbert Hoover in 1928, Franklin Roosevelt over Hoover in 1932, Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas Dewey in 1944, Harry Truman over Dewey in 1948, Adlai Stevenson over Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and Ike over Stevenson in 1956.

The election of 1960 saw Vice President Richard Nixon (R) square off against U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy (D). The Nov. 8 edition of the Bastrop Daily Enterprise featured the headline “DICK OR JACK?” in bold letters above portraits of both men. Morehouse voters were “turning out in force.” The next day’s paper contains a surprise: Morehouse went for Nixon, giving him 2,177 votes to Kennedy’s 977. “More than 2,000 Democrats joined with 35 [registered] Republicans to give Richard M. Nixon … a majority vote in Morehouse.”

Not all elections records have been recoverable for this story. Archives from the election of 1964 – in which incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson (D) defeated Barry Goldwater (R) – could not easily be found.

Nixon returned in 1968 to run against Hubert Humphrey (D). The Enterprise reports Nixon got 1,762 votes in Morehouse while Humphrey got 1,793. Nixon ran again against George McGovern (D) in 1972, and although the vote tallies are not given, the Enterprise reports with a 67 percent voter turnout in Morehouse Nixon “zonked all other challengers, wrapping up 66.2 per cent of the total Morehouse votes … Nixon showed almost incredible strength in some of the voting precincts of Morehouse parish – particularly in a ‘bellweather’ precinct picked by CBS news as an ‘indicator precinct.’ In this particular precinct Nixon polled 503 votes while McGovern got only 30 votes.”

In 1976 the state of Louisiana went with Jimmy Carter (D) over incumbent Gerald Ford (R) by a margin of 77,173 votes. Unofficial results reported Nov. 3 by the Enterprise gave 5,418 Morehouse votes to Ford and 4,917 to Carter. The latter won the national election.

Sandra Thomas, now in her 33rd year as Morehouse Registrar of Voters, said the 1976 contest was her first national election. From her carefully maintained records, we find the results of every subsequent election:

In 1980, voter turnout in Morehouse was 80.3 percent. Ronald Reagan (R) carried the parish with 7,254 votes to Carter’s 4,856. Four years later, voter turnout was smaller at 78.6 percent. Nevertheless, Reagan got more votes at 8,585 compared to Walter Mondale’s (D) 4,829.

In 1988, George H.W. Bush got 7,335 votes in Morehouse to Michael Dukakis’ (D) 4,496. The voter turnout was 73.9 percent. However, the parish sided with Bill Clinton (D) over Bush four years later. Voter turnout in 1992 was 77.5 percent, with 6,013 votes for Clinton and 5,364 for Bush Sr.

Voter turnout lowered to 66.2 percent for Morehouse in 1996. The parish gave 6,160 votes to Clinton, and 5,193 votes to Bob Dole (R).

None will soon forget the contentious election of 2000 between George W. Bush (R) and Vice President Al Gore (D). Morehouse voter turnout was 60.7 percent, with 6,641 votes for Bush and 5,289 for Gore. The results were similar in 2004: Voter turnout was 62.2 percent, Bush got 7,470 votes and challenger John Kerry (D) got 5,031.

Time will tell how Morehouse votes this November. As a matter of interest, we can say Morehouse has sided with the winner in at least 13 out of 21 presidential contests since 1924, and has consistently chosen the winner in every election since 1980.