The most controversial election for President of the United States happened in 1876. Both candidates were known as reform-minded administrators. The Republican candidate was Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio. His Democratic adversary was Governor Samuel Tilden of New York. Both pledged to end the corruption that still haunted the Grant presidency. Tilden was the favorite early on because of his national reputation and the revival against President Grant. However, the Republicans were still the stronger party, and the race was very close. Tilden won the popular vote, but twenty electoral votes were in doubt. Tilden needed only one of those votes to win the presidency. A special election commission made up of ten Congressmen and five Supreme Court justices was assembled and voted 8-7 along party lines to give all disputed electoral votes to Hayes, who won 185-184!