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South Dakota · 2008 presidential election

South Dakota presidential election results 2008

John McCain carried South Dakota by 8.41 points (32,130 votes), winning 3 electoral votes.

Electoral votes
3
Votes counted
381,975
SD result
R+8.4
Compared with the nation
15.6 pts more Republican
Swing since 2004
13.1 pts to D

Statewide result

CandidatePartyVotesShareBarElectoral votes
John McCainRepublican203,05453.20%3
Barack ObamaDemocratic170,92444.70%—
Total votes381,975

Sources: 2008

County resultsMIT Election Lab

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MIT Election Data and Science Lab, County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2016 (compiled from official state election records)
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Aurora County: John McCain +9.5Bennett County: John McCain +4.8Buffalo County: Barack Obama +48.7Codington County: John McCain +6.5Davison County: John McCain +14.1Douglas County: John McCain +50.1Haakon County: John McCain +65.9Hanson County: John McCain +19.3McCook County: John McCain +14.7Mellette County: John McCain +8.7Pennington County: John McCain +21.4Sanborn County: John McCain +14.3Turner County: John McCain +20.1Ziebach County: Barack Obama +27.4Beadle County: John McCain +7.4Brookings County: Barack Obama +5.6Butte County: John McCain +36.0Charles Mix County: John McCain +7.7Custer County: John McCain +32.2Deuel County: John McCain +1.6Dewey County: Barack Obama +33.4Edmunds County: John McCain +19.2Grant County: John McCain +4.4Hand County: John McCain +26.7Harding County: John McCain +60.9Hughes County: John McCain +27.0Hyde County: John McCain +41.4Jones County: John McCain +51.1Lake County: Barack Obama +0.7Lyman County: John McCain +11.3Meade County: John McCain +32.8Miner County: Barack Obama +2.3Moody County: Barack Obama +4.8Oglala Lakota County: Barack Obama +79.7Spink County: John McCain +3.4Stanley County: John McCain +32.9Todd County: Barack Obama +58.3Union County: John McCain +14.0Brule County: John McCain +18.4Clark County: John McCain +12.2Day County: Barack Obama +13.0Faulk County: John McCain +26.7Hamlin County: John McCain +22.6Hutchinson County: John McCain +29.3Kingsbury County: John McCain +5.8Marshall County: Barack Obama +16.6Potter County: John McCain +31.7Sully County: John McCain +42.3Walworth County: John McCain +28.4Jackson County: John McCain +20.8Lawrence County: John McCain +15.6Lincoln County: John McCain +15.3McPherson County: John McCain +34.8Minnehaha County: Barack Obama +0.7Perkins County: John McCain +36.4Roberts County: Barack Obama +19.9Bon Homme County: John McCain +11.1Brown County: Barack Obama +5.6Campbell County: John McCain +41.2Clay County: Barack Obama +24.5Corson County: Barack Obama +21.7Fall River County: John McCain +26.9Gregory County: John McCain +29.4Tripp County: John McCain +33.6Yankton County: John McCain +2.0Jerauld County: John McCain +0.4
Each county coloured by its winner and shaded by margin. Tap one for its history.
County Barack ObamaJohn McCainOthers TotalMargin
Aurora 65579419 1,468 9.5
Beadle 3,4934,05483 7,630 7.4
Bennett 55761418 1,189 4.8
Bon Homme 1,3671,71237 3,116 11.1
Brookings 7,2076,431151 13,789 5.6
Brown 9,0418,067145 17,253 5.6
Brule 9651,40734 2,406 18.4
Buffalo 4541562 612 48.7
Butte 1,3062,82178 4,205 36.0
Campbell 24359110 844 41.2
Charles Mix 1,8072,10921 3,937 7.7
Clark 8301,06525 1,920 12.2
Clay 3,8082,29655 6,159 24.5
Codington 5,5956,374107 12,076 6.5
Corson 83753518 1,390 21.7
Custer 1,4752,90966 4,450 32.2
Davison 3,5544,73180 8,365 14.1
Day 1,7851,37221 3,178 13.0
Deuel 1,0541,08836 2,178 1.6
Dewey 1,32865918 2,005 33.4
Douglas 4241,29318 1,735 50.1
Edmunds 8191,21321 2,053 19.2
Fall River 1,3382,34869 3,755 26.9
Faulk 4267399 1,174 26.7
Grant 1,7861,95137 3,774 4.4
Gregory 7711,42324 2,218 29.4
Haakon 18793915 1,141 65.9
Hamlin 1,0431,66133 2,737 22.6
Hand 7181,24716 1,981 26.7
Hanson 9611,42627 2,414 19.3
Harding 13557512 722 60.9
Hughes 3,0375,29851 8,386 27.0
Hutchinson 1,2422,28534 3,561 29.3
Hyde 2265473 776 41.4
Jackson 43566815 1,118 20.8
Jerauld 5425464 1,092 0.4
Jones 1474638 618 51.1
Kingsbury 1,2771,43527 2,739 5.8
Lake 3,0332,99350 6,076 0.7
Lawrence 4,9326,787157 11,876 15.6
Lincoln 8,64211,803156 20,601 15.3
Lyman 71089419 1,623 11.3
Marshall 1,26190016 2,177 16.6
McCook 1,2191,64640 2,905 14.7
McPherson 4419158 1,364 34.8
Meade 3,7517,515199 11,465 32.8
Mellette 37344511 829 8.7
Miner 60557716 1,198 2.3
Minnehaha 39,83839,251709 79,798 0.7
Moody 1,6631,50832 3,203 4.8
Oglala Lakota 2,97133112 3,314 79.7
Pennington 17,80227,603382 45,787 21.4
Perkins 4991,10255 1,656 36.4
Potter 48293715 1,434 31.7
Roberts 2,6721,78131 4,484 19.9
Sanborn 50066912 1,181 14.3
Spink 1,5501,66029 3,239 3.4
Stanley 5101,01713 1,540 32.9
Sully 2335819 823 42.3
Todd 2,20857128 2,807 58.3
Tripp 9141,85936 2,809 33.6
Turner 1,6812,53847 4,266 20.1
Union 3,2444,31066 7,620 14.0
Walworth 9231,66829 2,620 28.4
Yankton 4,8385,03990 9,967 2.0
Ziebach 55431216 882 27.4

Candidate votes as printed in the document. “Total” is the document’s total where it prints one, otherwise the sum of the candidate columns. Margin is the leading ticket’s lead in points over the second.

Notes on how this document was read
  • Secondary source: MIT Election Data and Science Lab, County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2016 (compiled from official state election records).

Method: Machine-readable dataset; county sums checked against the state totals in The American Presidency Project summary (within 0.5% for both main tickets).

South Dakota in every election · 2008 primaries · 2008 Senate race · All states in 2008 · Report an error

Questions and answers

Who won South Dakota in 2008?

John McCain won South Dakota by 8.41 percentage points (32,130 votes).

How many electoral votes did South Dakota have in 2008?

South Dakota cast 3 electoral votes in 2008.

How many people voted for president in South Dakota in 2008?

381,975 votes were counted for president.

How many counties did each candidate win in South Dakota in 2008?

John McCain 50, Barack Obama 16 (out of 66 counties with results).

How did South Dakota change from 2004 to 2008?

The margin moved 13.1 points toward the Democratic ticket, from Republican by 21.5 points to Republican by 8.4 points.

Official results As published by The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) and the state documents it links. How we use this data