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1940 Presidential Election

VAP turnout uses this page’s presidential vote total. VAP here is the civilian population and excludes Armed Forces members. VEP turnout is a separately published historical rate, using its own turnout and population estimates. These rates are not directly comparable.
83,789,120
Voting-Age Population (VAP)
59.5%
Turnout by VAP
A state VEP map and precise population-share chart are unavailable for this year. The US Elections Project has not released pre-1980 state VEP estimates because the underlying citizenship and correctional-population data are incomplete.
Voting-Eligible Population (VEP)
National turnout by VEP: 62.4%. UF Election Lab, March 2, 2026 publishes this rounded national election turnout rate, without a population count in this dataset. It uses the source’s own turnout and population estimates and is not recalculated from this page’s presidential vote total. The two turnout rates are not directly comparable. The pre-1948 historical rates were produced by Walter Dean Burnham.
Turnout by VEP

Results of the presidential election of 1940, won by Franklin D. Roosevelt with 449 electoral votes.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt's Cabinet

Officials who served during the 1941–1945 elected term. Years show full tenure in office, including service outside the term. The budget director is also listed.

President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–1945)

Vice President: Henry A. Wallace (1941–1945)

Secretary of State: Cordell Hull (1933–1944), Edward R. Stettinius Jr. (1944–1945)

Secretary of the Treasury: Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934–1945)

Secretary of War: Henry L. Stimson (1940–1945)

Attorney General: Robert H. Jackson (1940–1941), Francis Biddle (1941–1945)

Postmaster General: Frank C. Walker (1940–1945)

Secretary of the Navy: Frank Knox (1940–1944), James Forrestal (1944–1947)

Secretary of the Interior: Harold L. Ickes (1933–1946)

Secretary of Agriculture: Claude R. Wickard (1940–1945)

Secretary of Commerce: Jesse H. Jones (1940–1945)

Secretary of Labor: Frances Perkins (1933–1945)

Director of the Bureau of the Budget: Harold D. Smith (1939–1946)

Other Sources

Electoral Votes

Other color: Socialist Party (Norman Thomas). Left-leaning alignment. Combined Other totals include all remaining candidates.

449
Franklin D. Roosevelt
82
Wendell L. Willkie
266 to win
27,243,218 popular votes (54.7%)
Running Mate: Henry A. Wallace
22,334,940 popular votes (44.8%)
Running Mate: Charles L. McNary

The United States presidential election of 1940 was fought in the shadow of World War II as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression.

1940

Presedential Election

Democrat

State Electoral Votes

Alabama

11

Alaska

Arizona

3

Arkansas

9

California

22

Colorado

6

Connecticut

8

Delaware

3

District of Columbia

Florida

7

Georgia

12

Hawaii

Idaho

4

Illinois

29

Indiana

14

Iowa

11

Kansas

9

Kentucky

11

Louisiana

10

Maine

5

Maryland

8

Massachusetts

17

Michigan

19

Minnesota

11

Mississippi

9

Missouri

15

Montana

4

Nebraska

7

Nevada

3

New Hampshire

4

New Jersey

16

New Mexico

3

New York

47

North Carolina

13

North Dakota

4

Ohio

26

Oklahoma

11

Oregon

5

Pennsylvania

36

Rhode Island

4

South Carolina

8

South Dakota

4

Tennessee

11

Texas

23

Utah

4

Vermont

3

Virginia

11

Washington

8

West Virginia

8

Wisconsin

12

Wyoming

3

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