The 1940 United States presidential election in California took place on November 5, 1940, as part of the 1940 United States presidential election. State voters chose 22 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. California voted for the Democratic incumbent, Franklin Roosevelt, over the Republican challenger, businessman Wendell Willkie. Willkie did nonetheless make considerable gains vis-à-vis the previous Republican nominee, Alf Landon, who remains the solitary Republican nominee to not carry a single county in the state. Willkie carried seven counties scattered across the state and gained ten percentage points on Landon's performance. This is the last election where the Democrats won Sutter County, which, as of the 2020 presidential election, stands as the longest run voting for one party by any California county. Mono County would not vote Democratic again until John Kerry in 2004, and Orange County would not vote Democratic again until Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Results

Results by county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Electors

Up through 1936, voters in California chose presidential electors directly. Starting in 1940, however, California adopted the modern "short ballot" where voters select from the actual candidates' names and each vote is treated as being for a candidate and his or her party's entire slate of electors. The individuals below were nominated by each party to serve as the state's members of the 1940 Electoral College should their party's ticket win the state: