1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election
election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Minnesota
The 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election was the closest statewide race in Minnesota history and one of the closest gubernatorial elections in U.S. history. The election was held on November 6, 1962, but the results were not known until March 21, 1963. The vote count after election day had Governor Elmer L. Andersen in the lead by 142 votes. Then-Lieutenant Governor Karl Rolvaag went to court and won the right to a recount. After the recount, it was determined that Rolvaag had defeated Andersen by 91 votes out of over 1.2 million cast. He received 619,842 votes to Andersen's 619,751. The previous closest gubernatorial election was the state's first, in 1857.
At the time, governors and lieutenant governors were elected on separate ballots. Andersen was a Republican and Rolvaag a DFLer. The 1962 election was also the first four-year term election for Minnesota governor.
“1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election” enters the record as election for the governorship of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Minnesota, gubernatorial and election can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Minnesota, gubernatorial and election provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6868705. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1963 and 1857.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election primary sources, 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election archive and Minnesota research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election”?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1962 Minnesota gubernatorial election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.