June 2, 1964 - Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York waged a nip-and-tuck battle for California’s Presidential convention votes in today’s primary election.
The conservative Arizona senator jumped into an early lead and held it through much of the early count. He claimed victory at 8:02 p.m., only minutes after the polls closed in part of the state.
But Rockefeller steadfastly refused to concede defeat. And late returns — particularly from Northern California — pushed the New Yorker into a razor-thin lead, according to Associated Press compilations.
Returns from 22,764 precincts out of 32,861 precincts in the states showed:
Rockefeller — 547,554
Goldwater — 530,011
The Goldwater fans got a tremendous boost when the CBS television network consulted its electronic computers and announced at 7:22 p.m. that the Arizonan was the sure-fire winner. That was 38 minutes before polls closed in San Francisco and four other counties.
The ABC network joined in the conclusion shortly afterward. But the NBC network steadfastly refused to declare Goldwater the winner.
Nevertheless, the jubilant senator emerged from his private quarters in the Ambassador Hotel and said that although his anticipated triumph may not necessarily assure him of the GOP nomination the July 13 party convention in San Francisco, “it is a giant step forward.”
In New York, Rockefeller said he wanted to wait until all the votes were counted. And he put off until 11:30 a.m. tomorrow a statement on the results.
“On the basis of the electronic computation so far,” Goldwater said in California, “I seem to be the winner. Being old-fashioned, I’d like to see the figures totaled in the morning. Assuming the gadgets are correct, it is not a victory for Barry Goldwater in California. It’s a victory for the mainstream of Republican thinking.”
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