In the end, the popular vote totals of the two main candidates were separated by 1,898 votes (0.11%), the smallest victory in the national popular vote ever recorded. In the electoral college, however, Garfield's victory was much larger; he won the decisive state of New York by 21,033 votes (1.91%). Hancock's sweep of the Southern states was not enough for victory, but it cemented his party's dominance of the region for generations. This is the first presidential election in which people in every state were able to vote directly for presidential electors. This was the most recent election until 2020 when the Republican and Democratic candidate both won the same amount of states.