United States Senate elections, 1848

The United States Senate election of 1848 was an election which had the Democratic Party lose seats but maintain control of the United States Senate.

As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, Senators were chosen by State legislatures.

Senate Party Division, 31st Congress (1849–1851)

• Majority Party: Democratic (35)

• Minority Party: Whig Party (25)

• Other Parties: Free Soil (2)

• Total Seats: 62

Change in Senate composition

Before the elections D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D ID W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W

Beginning of the next Congress D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D F F W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W V

Key:	D = Democratic ID = Independent Democratic F = Free Soil W = Whig V = Vacant	Majority divider

Individual elections

Ohio

The two houses of the Ohio General Assembly met in joint session February 22, 1849, with 72 representatives and 35 senators present to elect a Senator (Class 3) to succeed incumbent Wiliam Allen. On the fourth ballot, Salmon P. Chase was elected with a majority of the votes cast, as follows:

Ballot	William Allen	Thomas Ewing	Joshua Reed Giddings	Salmon P. Chase	Reuben Hitchcock	Emery D. Potter	David T. Disney	John C. Vaughn	blank ballots	total votes cast
1	27	41	9	14	1	2	1	0	11	106
2	1	41	8	52	0	0	0	0	4	108
3	0	39	9	53	0	0	0	2	2	105
4	0	39	11	55	0	0	0	1	0	106

The second ballot was declared a nullity by Speaker of the Senate Brewster Randall, because there were one more ballots cast than members present.

See also

• United States House of Representatives elections, 1848