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Because of the inner logic of the show, The West Wing had to simultaneously reference historical presidents while creating a 'new canon' for the previous few presidents before Bartlett AND have elections take place in the wrong years in order to line up with when they premiered the series

I believe the fan explanation for it is that Nixon resigned in between Agnew's resignation and Ford's appointment in the timeline, and they changed the law to do a special presidential election in 1974 (which does fit with which presidents get cited), then just kept the 4-year cycle

(Though one would think this would've been mentioned during the multi-episode "25th Amendment with a VP vacancy" storyline)

Yeah, i've seen that entire theory and it's so much of a stretch that it could probably pass an audition at Cirque du Soleil

There was no constitutional amendment - elections have been held regularly every four years since the constitutional convention in 1789, following ratification in 1790 and Washington’s unanimous selection in 1791 No I am not going to tell you how the rest of American history worked

I'm so emotionally invested in this that I am having to use all my willpower to not harangue Do for your phone number so i can call and INSIST you expand further on this poitn

Look after Lincoln is assassinated in 1867 almost everything is the same anyway, except for that part where FDR is elected earlier in the Great Depression - the first of five elections he wins