General Information
Originally the term was three years long and began on July 1, the election being held in the last week of April or May 1. In 1817, following the resignation of Daniel D. Tompkins after serving only 8 months of his term, there was a new election, since the 1777 Constitution did not give the Lt. Gov. the right to succeed to the governor's office, and DeWitt Clinton was elected for a whole three-year-term. The New York State Constitutional Convention of 1821 reduced the term to two years - beginning on January 1 and ending on December 31 - and moved the election to the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Due to this measure, DeWitt Clinton's own second term was cut short by half a year. Beginning with the election in 1876, the term was increased to three years again, beginning with the election in 1894 reduced to two years, and since the election in 1938 has its present duration of four years.
Although the candidates for Lieutenant Governor have always run on tickets with the governor's candidates, until the election of 1950 they were elected on separate ballots, so on several occasions (1826, 1846, 1850, 1906, 1924) the governor and his lieutenant were elected of opposing tickets.
In only 15 of the total 89 elections the incumbent ran and was defeated.
The elected candidates are shown in bold face in the tables below.
Read more about this topic: New York Gubernatorial Elections
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