In the US Presidential election of 1876, the final vote count could not be decided in three states—Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina—due to rampant voter fraud. A special ‘Electoral Commission’ rewarded all 19 electoral votes to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, despite him losing the popular vote to Democrat Samuel Tilden. Hayes won the Electoral College by a single vote. In order to avoid a second civil war, Hayes ended reconstruction, the military occupation of the South by the North after the American Civil War.