The 1860 election cemented the Republican Party's position as one of the two major parties in U.S. politics, along with the already-established Democratic Party. Since this time, all U.S. presidents have been affiliated with these two parties, and their candidates have generally performed the best in each presidential election. In spite of this two-party dominance, there have always been third-party or independent candidates running on the ballot, either on a nationwide, regional or state level. No third-party candidate has ever won a U.S. election, although there have been several occasions where they have carried states or split the vote with major party candidates. Today, the largest third-party in U.S. politics is the Libertarian Party, who are considered to be socially liberal, but economically conservative; in the 2016 election, their nominee, Gary Johnson, secured just over three percent of the popular vote, while their latest candidate, Jo Jorgenson, received just over one percent of the vote in the 2020 election.

Theodore Roosevelt The most successful third-party nominee was Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election, who was the only third-party candidate to come second in a U.S. election. The former president had become disillusioned with his successor's growing conservatism, and challenged the incumbent President Taft for the Republican nomination in 1912. Roosevelt proved to be the most popular candidate in the primaries, however Taft had already secured enough Republican delegates in the south to seal the nomination. Roosevelt then used this split in the Republican Party to form his own, Progressive Party, and challenged both major party candidates for the presidency (even taking a bullet in the process). In the end, Roosevelt carried six states, and won over 27 percent of the popular vote, while Taft carried just two states with 23 percent of the vote; this split in the Republican Party allowed the Democratic nominee, Woodrow Wilson, to win 82 percent of the electoral votes despite only winning 42 percent of the popular vote.

Other notable performances The last third-party candidate to win electoral votes was George Wallace* in the 1968 election. The Democratic Party had been the most popular party in the south since before the Civil War, however their increasingly progressive policies in the civil rights era alienated many of their southern voters. Wallace ran on a white supremacist and pro-segregationist platform and won the popular vote in five states. This was a similar story to that of Storm Thurmond, twenty years earlier.

In the 1992 election, Independent candidate Ross Perot received almost one fifth of the popular vote. Although he did not win any electoral votes, Perot split the vote so much that he prevented either Clinton or Bush Sr. from winning a majority in any state except Arkansas (Clinton's home state). Perot ran again in 1996, but with less than half the share of votes he received four years previously; subsequent studies and polls have shown that Perot took an equal number of votes from both of the major party candidates in each election.

With Abraham Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election, the Republican Party cemented its position as one of the two major political parties in the United States. Since 1860, candidates from both parties have faced one another in 41 elections, with the Republican candidate winning 24 elections, to the Democrats' 17. The share of electoral college votes is often very different from the share of the popular vote received by each candidate in the elections, as the popular vote differences tend to be much smaller. Electoral college system In the U.S., the electoral college system is used to elect the president. For most states, this means that the most popular candidate in each state then receives that state's allocation of electoral votes (which is determined by the state's population). In the majority of elections, the margin of electoral votes has been over thirty percent between the two major party candidates, and there were even some cases where the winner received over ninety percent more electoral votes than the runner-up. Biggest winners The largest margins for the Republican Party occurred in the aftermath of the American Civil War, in the pre-Depression era of the 1920s, with Eisenhower after the Second World War, and then again with the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush campaigns in the 1970s and 80s. For the Democratic Party, the largest victories occurred during the First and Second World Wars, and for Lindon B. Johnson and Bill Clinton in the second half of the 20th century. In the past six elections, the results of the electoral college vote have been relatively close, compared with the preceding hundred years; George W. Bush's victories were by less than seven percent, Obama's victories were larger (by around thirty percent), and in the most recent elections involving Donald Trump he both won and lost by roughly 14 percent.

Every four years in the United States, the electoral college system is used to determine the winner of the presidential election. In this system, each state has a fixed number of electors based on their population size, and (generally speaking) these electors then vote for their candidate with the most popular votes within their state or district. Since 1964, there have been 538 electoral votes available for presidential candidates, who need a minimum of 270 votes to win the election. Because of this system, candidates do not have to win over fifty percent of the popular votes across the country, but just win in enough states to receive a total of 270 electoral college votes. Popular results From 1789 until 1820, there was no popular vote, and the President was then chosen only by the electors from each state. George Washington was unanimously voted for by the electorate, receiving one hundred percent of the votes in both elections. From 1824, a popular vote has been conducted among American citizens (with varying levels of access for women, Blacks, and poor voters), to help electors in each state decide who to vote for (although the 1824 winner was chosen by the House of Representatives, as no candidate received over fifty percent of electoral votes). Since 1924, the difference in the share of both votes has varied, with several candidates receiving over 90 percent of the electoral votes while only receiving between fifty and sixty percent of the popular vote. The highest difference was for Ronald Reagan in 1980, where he received just 50.4 percent of the popular vote, but 90.9 percent of the electoral votes. Unpopular winners Since 1824, there have been 51 elections, and in 19 of these the winner did not receive over fifty percent of the popular vote. In the majority of these cases, the winner did receive a plurality of the votes, however there have been five instances where the winner of the electoral college vote lost the popular vote to another candidate. The most recent examples of this were in 2000, when George W. Bush received roughly half a million fewer votes than Al Gore, and in 2016, where Hillary Clinton won approximately three million more votes than Donald Trump.

The 1860 Presidential Election was one of the most divisive and influential elections in United States history. This election campaign was overshadowed by the issue of slavery, which was illegal in the northern states of the US, but was still allowed in the south (although the slave trade had been banned for decades). Slavery caused the Democratic Party to split into the Northern and Southern Democratic parties, as those in the north were against slavery being made legal in the new western states, whereas those in the south believed that slave owners should be allowed to expand into these new territories without interference. Popular vote Because of this issue, the overall election results were split across the country. Abraham Lincoln won 1.9 million votes (40 percent) compared to Douglas' 1.4 million (30 percent), and the majority of these votes were won in the northern states as Lincoln's name was not included on the ballots across most of the south. The southern candidates Bell and Breckingridge received 0.6 (13 percent) and 0.8 million (18 percent) votes respectively. Electoral college results While the results show that the northern candidates received the majority of the popular votes, the electoral college votes were not distributed in the same way. While Douglas received the second-highest number of votes overall (and almost the same amount as Bell and Breckingridge combined), he received the fewest electoral college votes, with just 12 in total. Abraham Lincoln won the most electoral college votes with 180 (59 percent), and Bell and Breckenridge received 39 and 72 electoral votes respectively.

The Labour Party won 33.7 percent of the vote in the 2024 general election, with the Conservative vote share falling to 23.7 percent. Parties outside the three mainstream political parties gained 30.4 percent of the vote, the highest vote share in this time period. Since 1918 there have been 29 General Elections in the United Kingdom, with the Conservative party winning the highest share of the vote in 19 elections, and the Labour Party in ten. The Conservatives recorded their highest share of the vote in 1931 at 60.8 percent, the Labour Party in 1951 at 48.8 percent, and the then Liberal Party in 1923 at 29.6 percent. Reform leading the polls in 2025 Although Labour won by far the most seats in the 2024 general election, they did this on the lowest national vote share of a majority party in this time period. This shallow victory was followed by a relatively unstable first year in power, which has left Labour just as unpopular as the Conservative government they replaced. At both parties expense, the hard-right Reform UK party have consistently led the polls for several months. Although the next UK election is not likely until the late 2020s, an election in 2025 would almost certainly return Reform UK as the largest party, a result without precedent in modern UK history. Immigration and economy key issues for voters When asked about current issues facing the country, UK voters have consistently identified the economy, health, and immigration as the most important ones since 2023. Since the start of 2025, however, health has gradually fallen to a distant-third, while immigration has surged ahead of the economy as the main issue, with 58 percent seeing it as the most important issue in September. This mirrors the increase in support for Reform UK in election polls, with the party currently seen as the best political party to handle the issue of immigration, with Labour selected as better at handling the economy, and the National Health Service.

The 1992 US presidential election was contested by incumbent President George H. W. Bush of the Republican Party, the Democratic Party's Bill Clinton, and independent candidate Ross Perot. Bush won his party's re-nomination easily, however the the nature of his opponents (which included David Duke; Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan) pushed him to take a more conservative approach throughout the remainder of his campaign, alienating many moderates in the process. Due to the Bush's popularity following the US' success in the Gulf War, many prominent Democrats decided not to run against him in the 1992 election, which meant that most of the candidates were relatively unknown. There was no clear frontrunner by the time of the first primary elections, but Clinton, despite widespread accusations of an extramarital affair, eventually secured the required number of delegates as the other candidates dropped out. Campaign The weakened economy and federal budget deficit led to some dissatisfaction with Bush's administration, and independent billionaire Ross Perot capitalized on the economic concerns of the public by launching his own campaign. In spring 1992, Perot was leading in the polls, with Bush in second place. Shortly after the race began, Perot dropped out as he feared that his involvement would prevent any of the candidates from securing a majority of electoral votes. Clinton, with Al Gore as his running mate, campaigned all over the country, promising to repair the wealth gap that had appeared under the Reagan and Bush administrations. Bush proceeded to repeat the accusations of infidelity against Clinton, as well as highlighting how Clinton dodged the Vietnam War draft. The economic decline, however, meant that Bush's ratings continued to fall, and neither his foreign policy successes nor the end of the Cold War could rescue his numbers. As Clinton moved ahead, Perot re-entered the race, and while his numbers were initially low, his performance in the three-way televised debates saw his ratings increase at Clinton's expense. In the final days of the election, Bush and Perot again began to attack Clinton personally, accusing him of adultery, draft dodging and using drugs (which led to Clinton's famous claim that he had once pretended to smoke marijuana, but did not inhale). Results Clinton emerged victorious from the election, winning in 32 states (plus DC) and taking over two thirds of the electoral vote. In spite of his victory, this was the lowest share of the popular vote by a winning candidate since 1912 (which was also a three-way race). Ross Perot's impact was unprecedented, and because of his involvement, only Clinton's home state of Arkansas and Washington DC actually gave the majority of their votes to one candidate (Bush and Perot were both from Texas). Although Perot failed to win any electoral college votes, he won the largest share of the popular vote by any third party candidate since Theodore Roosevelt's tally in 1912. George H. W. Bush was the last president to have been voted out of office after just one term. His son, George W. Bush, would go on to succeed Clinton, with his victory in the 2000 US presidential election.

The 1968 US presidential election was contested between Richard Nixon of the Republican Party, incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey of the Democratic Party, and George Wallace of the newly-formed American Independent Party (AIP). Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the Democratic race due to anti-Vietnam War sentiment across the country, and Robert Kennedy (brother to the former President John F. Kennedy) was one of the frontrunners until his assassination in June, 1968, which cleared the way for Humphrey to win his party's nomination. Richard Nixon (vice president in the Eisenhower administration) faced opposition from Nelson Rockefeller (who had lost in the previous two Republican primaries) and Ronald Reagan who emerged late in the race. Although Reagan was the most popular candidate in the Republican primaries, taking the most popular votes, Nixon's success early in the campaign gave him the required number of delegates to take the Republican nomination. George Wallace ran for the AIP, who were a far-right party seeking to enforce racial segregation in the south.

Campaign

1968 was a tumultuous year in the history of the United States, due to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, as well as the riots following King's assassination and the anti-Vietnam War protests across the country (anti-war protests had also marred the Democratic National Convention, which cast a shadow over Humphrey's campaign). Nixon's early strategy was to win over disillusioned Democratic voters, who were against the previous administration's support for civil rights, however Wallace took much of this support in the south, which split the conservative vote and kept Humphrey in the race. Humphrey struggled early on, but he later distanced himself from Johnson's administration (which became increasingly unpopular due to the war), and attacked Wallace's racist and bigoted views, which saw him climb in the polls and narrow Nixon's lead. In a last-ditch attempt to win the election for Humphrey, the Johnson administration rushed through peace talks with Vietnam in Paris, however the Nixon campaign was able to prevent their progress so the Democratic Party could not use them to amass votes before election day.

Results

The results were extremely close, and were not announced until the following day. Wallace's performance saw that neither major party candidate took a majority of the popular vote, although Nixon took a plurality in 32 states, giving him almost 56 percent of the electoral votes and making him the 37th President of the United States. Although Nixon received just 0.7 percent more popular votes than Humphrey, he took over twenty percent more electoral votes, although this pales in comparison to Nixon's winning margin in the 1972 US presidential election. Wallace carried five states in total, which was the last time any third party candidate took more than one electoral vote (as of the 2016 election).

The 1912 US presidential election saw three US Presidents compete with one another; these were Woodrow Wilson of the Democratic Party, incumbent President William Howard Taft of the Republican Party, and Theodore Roosevelt, who was a member of the Republican Party while in office, but now ran as a member of the Progressive Party. Five-time candidate Eugene V. Debs of the Socialist Party also had a noticeable presence along the campaign trail. Republican split Although Taft had ascended to the presidency with Roosevelt's support, a rift developed between the two friends during Taft's tenure as president, due to his conservativism. This eventually caused a split in the Republican Party, with Taft and his conservative supporters narrowly winning the nomination at the Republican National Convention. Following this, Roosevelt and his progressive followers from the Republican Party convened in Chicago and formed the Progressive Party, also known as the "Bull Moose" Party. The most famous incident on the campaign trail was the assassination attempt on Roosevelt's life, in which Roosevelt was shot in the chest as he arrived to give a speech. Undeterred, Roosevelt then proceeded to speak for eighty four minutes, before making his way to the hospital with the bullet still lodged firmly in his ribs. The bullet would remain in Roosevelt's chest until his death in 1919. Results The split in the Republican Party saw the Democratic nominee win one of the most convincing victories in US history, taking 40 out of 48 states, and winning an 82 percent share of the electoral votes. However ,the popular vote was much closer, returning just a 42 percent share for the new President. The incumbent President Taft received just 1.5 percent of the electoral votes, while Roosevelt took almost 17 percent; and this is the only time in US history where a third party candidate received more popular or electoral votes than a candidate from the two major parties. Wilson's victory has been attributed to the rift in the Republican Party, and this rift also drove many disenfranchised Republicans to vote for the Socialist Party, who received a six percent share of the popular vote.

The 1820 United States presidential election saw incumbent President James Monroe run without any opposition from another major political party. This was only the third time that a candidate went virtually unopposed, with the other two times being in 1789 and 1792, as George Washington was elected unanimously on both occasions. In 1820, Monroe won 231 of 232 electoral college votes, as one vote was given to future-President, John Quincy Adams, by a faithless elector; which is an elector who does not give their vote to the candidate to whom they originally pledged they would (there were 7 faithless electors in the 2016 election). Until the 1820 election, the Federalist Party had always fielded an opponent to the Republican-Democratic Party's candidate, however their weaning popularity and the Republican-Democrat Party's dominance since 1800 meant they could not realistically field an opponent in the 1820 election. Despite winning all-but-one electoral vote, Monroe only managed to win 81 percent of the popular vote, with the majority of the other nineteen percent going to the Federalist Party, despite them not naming an opponent.

The 1924 United States presidential election was a three way race contested between incumbent President Calvin Coolidge of the Republican Party, John W. Davis of the Democratic Party, and Robert M. La Follette of the Progressive Party. Coolidge was almost unanimously chosen as the Republican candidate due to the economy's strong performance during his tenure as vice president and subsequent presidency. In contrast to this the Democratic Party failed to agree on a candidate, and instead of choosing from the two frontrunners, compromised and nominated Davis instead. The Progressive Party was dissatisfied with both major party candidates, who they viewed as being too conservative, and put forward La Follette as a more liberal option for the electorate. Results President Coolidge convincingly won re-election, taking 54 percent of the popular vote, which gave him a majority in 35 states and almost 72 percent of the electoral college votes. Davis received just 28 percent of the popular vote, which was the lowest return of any Democratic presidential candidate in US history, and this gave him just over one quarter of the electoral votes. As a contrast to the two conservative candidates, La Follette was able to take almost 17 percent of the popular vote, and even won his home state of Wisconsin, making this one of the strongest performances by a third party candidate in US history.

The 1876 United States presidential election is remembered as being one of the closest and contentious elections in US history. It was contested between the Republican Party's Rutherford B. Hayes and the Democratic Party's Samuel J. Tilden. Hayes was eventually named as the nineteenth President of the United States, winning by just one electoral vote. Tilden won 51 percent of the popular vote, and this makes him the only presidential candidate to ever win a majority of popular votes, but not be named president, and this was the second of five times where the person with the most votes was not named president. Controversy After the first round of counting, both candidates carried 17 states each, with four states too close to call. At this point, Tilden had 184 electoral votes (one short of a majority) to Hayes' 165. With both parties claiming victory in the final four states, and no official decision being made, an informal deal was agreed upon by both parties. This deal was the Compromise of 1877, and it gave the remaining twenty electoral votes to Hayes in return for the withdrawal of Federal troops from the south; thus establishing Democratic political dominance in the south, and ending the period of Reconstruction following the civil war. Suppression of the black vote Over the next few decades, the Democratic Party was able to use this dominance in the former-Confederate states to establish obstacles for poor-white and black voters when registering to vote. Following the civil war, black voters outnumbered white voters in at least five southern states, and these voters tended to vote Republican (the party of Lincoln, who is regarded as the figure most responsible for breaking down the institution of slavery). White dominance was achieved by introducing measures such as literacy tests and poll taxes, which disproportionately affected black voters, disenfranchising a significant number of them from participating in US politics. Although many of these practices were overturned through the civil rights era in the 1950s and 1960s, voter suppression continues to this day through the gerrymandering of district lines, as well as ID requirements and controversial computer systems that disproportionately affect ethnic-minorities during the voting process.

The 1828 US presidential election was the first election to feature the Democratic Party, which was represented by Andrew Jackson, who competed against the incumbent President John Quincy Adams of the new National Republican Party (not to be confused with the current Republican Party). Both candidates had competed with one another in the previous race (as members of the same party), however both political and personal rifts, particularly between Jackson and Adams, caused the Democratic-Republican Party to split into two new major parties. This election is often seen as a pre-cursor to the current election system in the US, as it was the first time that a significant number of US citizens voted between two candidates from two major parties. Results As in the 1824 election, Jackson received the highest number of both popular and electoral votes, however this time he received over fifty percent of both, and was automatically named president. Overall, Jackson received 56 percent of the popular votes, compared to Adams' 43.6 percent, and this translated to more than 68 percent of the electoral votes for Jackson. This meant that John Quincy Adams became just the second incumbent US President to fail in his attempt to gain re-election (the first was his father, John Adams, in 1800). Tariff of 1828 Adams' cabinet introduced the Tariff of 1828, which placed heavy tariffs on European imports to the US, in order to protect businesses in the northern states. While these measures benefited industry in the north, the tariffs angered businessmen in the south, who relied on cheap imports of raw materials from Europe. Jackson was able to use this resentment to garner support in the agricultural southern and western states, even though he personally supported the bill. US tariff policies would go on to dominate US politics over the next few decades, and even led to the resignation of Jackson's Vice President, John C. Colhoun, in 1832.

The 15th US presidential election took place in 1844, and saw one of the closest popular votes in US history. The race was contested by James K. Polk of the Democratic Party, and third-time candidate Henry Clay of the Whig Party. This was the first time that the incumbent president did not seek re-election after his first term in office, as President John Tyler did not have the support of a major party, and dropped out of the race when it became apparent that he could not win.

Neither of the major candidates received a majority of popular votes, with Polk and Clay receiving 49.5 and 48.1 percent of the votes respectively, however this translated into a 62 percent share of the electoral votes for Polk, making him the eleventh President of the United States. James Birney of the anti-slavery Liberty Party also received 2.3 percent of the popular votes, particularly in the north, and many scholars have since argued that his role was much larger than thought at the time, as he took votes from Clay in states where he otherwise would have won.

Maryland has cast electoral ballots in every U.S. presidential election, and has correctly given the majority of its electoral votes to the overall winner in 39 out of 59 elections, resulting in a success rate of 66 percent. Apart from the first two U.S. elections, where George Washington was elected unanimously, Maryland has voted for a major party candidate in all but one elections; this was in 1856, where Maryland was the only state carried by the Know Nothing Party's Millard Fillmore. In early elections, Maryland's electors cast separate ballots for the most popular candidate in their district, although this system fell out of use in the 1830s. Since the 1850s, Maryland has generally voted for the Democratic nominee, siding with the Democrats in 29 elections, and the Republicans twelve times. In the 2020 election, Maryland was a comfortable victory for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, whose share of the popular vote was over double that of his rival, Donald Trump.

Closest ever elections In terms of popular votes, Maryland has seen the two closest results in any presidential election. The first of these was in 1832, where Henry Clay received 19,160 popular votes, while Andrew Jackson received 19,156; a difference of just four votes. The second was in 1904, where Theodore Roosevelt received 109,497 votes, 51 votes more than his rival, Alton B. Parker. In contrast to the 1832 election, the most popular candidate did not win Maryland in 1904, as Democratic politicians and electors were able to manipulate the voting system to change the winner of their district; this system was in place until 1937. While these elections in Maryland have two of the smallest differences in the number of popular votes cast, the smallest difference in the share of votes occurred in the 2000 election in Florida, where George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by just 537 votes, which equated to a 0.009 percent difference.

Marylanders

No U.S. president was ever born in or resided in Maryland when taking office, nor has any major party candidate come from the Old Line State. Throughout most of its history, Maryland was allocated eight electoral votes, although it was raised to ten in the second half of the twentieth century, due to a high growth rate in the decades after the Second World War.

The 1896 US Presidential election was contested between the Republican Party's William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan of the Democratic Party. The election was one of the most significant in US politics, as the economic depression, known as the Panic of 1893, led to a political realignment of the major parties, with the Republicans now becoming the more conservative of the two major parties. The period between 1896 and 1932 has become known as the Fourth Party System, and was dominated by the Republican Party. Results The election of 1896 was close, with McKinley taking 23 states to Bryan's 22, however this returned a roughly 61 percent share of the electoral votes. Additionally, McKinley took a 51 percent share of the popular vote, while Bryan received 47 percent. The remaining two percent was mostly split between the National Democratic Party's John M. Palmer, and the Prohibition Party's Joshua Levering. McKinley was then named as the 25th President of the United States, and he was re-elected four years later, although he was assassinated just six months into his second term.

The twelfth US presidential election took place in 1832, and was contested between incumbent President Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party and Henry Clay of the National Republican Party, while significant votes were also cast for John Floyd of the Nullifier Party, and William Wirt of the Anti-Masonic Party. Jackson and Clay had already been political rivals for quite some time, as Clay had run against Jackson in the 1824 presidential election, and was also responsible for Jackson not winning the election that year, despite him receiving the most votes. This was the first year where all major parties used presidential nominating conventions to put forward their candidate. Results President Jackson managed to receive more votes in the 1832 election than in the 1828 election, and finished with over 54 percent of the popular votes, which gave him almost 77 percent of the electoral votes. Henry Clay received the majority of the rest of the votes, although William Wirt did receive almost eight percent of the popular vote, which won him seven electoral votes. John Floyd, who had not actively campaigned, received the electoral votes of South Carolina. A new challenger Although the Anti-Masonic Party did make an impact in this election (the first major third party to do so), Jackson's dominance, and the National Republican Party's inability to challenge him, led to an eventual coalition between the Anti-Masonic and National Republican parties. Both parties would amalgamate to form the Whig Party, who would go on to be the Democratic Party's major rival until the emergence of the Republican Party in 1856.

The 2000 US presidential election was contested by George W. Bush of the Republican Party (and son of former President George H. W. Bush), and incumbent Vice President Al Gore of the Democratic Party. The election was arguably the most controversial and closest in recent history, and the result was not made official until the next month. Gore was unanimously chosen as the Democratic nominee, while Bush won a comfortable victory in the Republican primaries, beating future-Republican nominee John McCain in the process. The Republican primaries in 2000 are also remembered for the Bush campaign's attempts to spread the lie that McCain's adopted daughter was actually conceived out of wedlock. Notable third party candidates were Ralph Nader of the Green Party, and political commentator Pat Buchanan, who beat future President Donald Trump for the Reform Party's nomination. Campaign The impeachment of President Clinton overshadowed the early stages of the campaign, with Gore distancing himself from Clinton (which may have hurt Gore's standing among Clinton supporters), while Bush vowed to restore "honor and dignity" to the White House. The Bush campaign promised to bridge the division in Washington DC, where partisanship had made it difficult for both major parties to work together. Gore focused on economic issues, pointing to his achievements as Vice President while highlighting his opponent's inexperience. Bush also became synonymous with his numerous gaffs and blunders along the campaign trail, including "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully," "working hard to put food on your family" and "is our children learning?"; while Gore was famously misquoted as claiming to have invented the internet. Results and controversy Generally speaking, Bush took the majority of the South and Midwest, while Gore swept the Northeast (except New Hampshire) and the west coast. By the end of election day, all states had declared their winner except for Florida, Wisconsin and Oregon, and Bush had secured 246 electoral votes, while Gore had 250; the number needed for victory was 270. As Florida was allocated 25 electoral votes, it's result would determine the winner. While the exit polls in Florida suggested a Gore victory, the early results put Bush in the lead; however, many of the later results were from Democratic districts which narrowed Bush's margin. This fluctuation caused much confusion among news outlets, who flip-flopped between who they declared as the winner, eventually causing Gore to withdraw his concession of victory, and a recount was triggered. The recount returned a victory for Bush, with a margin of 930 votes (although a New York Times report claimed that 680 of these were illegitimate overseas ballots). Gore then demanded that several counties' results were recounted by hand, however a Supreme Court ruling eventually declared that the original recount totals stood, giving the victory to Bush. In the end, Bush was declared the 43rd President of the United States, taking 271 electoral votes (one more than what was needed to win). Although Nader took just 2.7 percent of the popular vote, had his votes in Florida (or those of any other third party candidate) gone to Gore, then this would have swung the results of the overall election. Gore's share of the popular vote was 0.5 percent larger than Bush's, making this just one of five elections where the winner of the popular vote did not win the electoral vote.

Since 1824, when the popular vote was first used to determine the overall winner in U.S. presidential elections, the share of the population who participate in these elections has gradually increased. Despite this increase, participation has never reached half of the total population; partly due to the share of the population below the voting age of eighteen, but also as many potential voters above the age of eighteen do not take part, or are ineligible to vote. For example, in the 2016 election, approximately twenty million U.S. adults were ineligible to vote, while over 94 million simply did not participate; in this election, Donald Trump won the electoral college with 63 million votes, which means that 19.4 percent of the total U.S. population (or 27.3 percent of eligible voters) voted for the winning candidate. Development throughout history While the figures for the 2016 election may appear low, over 42 percent of the total population participated in this election, which was the third highest participation rate ever recorded (after the 2008 and 2020 elections). In the first election decided by a popular vote in 1824, only 350 thousand votes were cast from a total population of 10.6 million, although this increased to over four million votes by the 1856 election, as restrictions that applied to non-property holding white males were gradually lifted. Participation levels then dropped during the Civil War and Reconstruction era, as those who lived in Confederate states could not vote in 1864, and many white southerners were restricted or discouraged in the following election. Although universal suffrage was granted to black males in the wake of the Civil War, the majority of black Americans lived in the southern states, where lawmakers introduced Jim Crow laws in the late 1800s to suppress and disenfranchise the black vote, as well as poor white voters. The next major milestone was the introduction of women's suffrage in 1920, which saw voter participation increase by seven million votes (or seven percent) between the 1916 and 1920 elections. Between the 1910s and 1970s, the Great Migration saw many black Americans move away from the south to northern and western states, where they faced fewer obstacles when voting and greater economic mobility. This period of black migration began to decline in the 1960s and 1970s, during which time many Jim Crow laws were repealed in the south, through legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Female participation also grew gradually, and has exceeded male voting participation in all elections since the 1980s. The minimum voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in all states in 1971, although this seemingly had a minimal impact on the short-term trajectory of voter participation. Recent elections The 1992 election was the first in which more than one hundred million votes were cast, which was almost 41 percent of the total population. All elections since 2004 have also had more than one hundred million votes cast, which has again been more than forty percent of the total population. Another key factor in the increase in voter participation is the fact that people are living longer than ever before, and that those aged 65 and over have had the highest turnout levels since 1992. While some figures may be subject to change, the 2020 election set new records for voter turnout. Despite the global coronavirus pandemic, which many thought could cause the lowest turnout in decades, a record number of voters cast their ballots early or by mail, setting a new record of votes just shy of 160 million. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden and Donald Trump received 81.3 million and 74.2 million votes respectively, both beating Barack Obama's previous record of 69.3 million ballots in 2008. 2024 then saw a decline in the number of votes cast, with over three million fewer votes than in 2020.

As of 2020, Georgia has taken part in every presidential election contested in the United States, apart from the 1864 election, when Georgia was a member of the Confederacy. In these 58 elections, Georgia has voted for the winning candidate 34 times, giving a success rate of 59 percent. As with most southern states, Georgia has traditionally voted for the more conservative candidate of the major parties; primarily voting Democrat in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, before switching to the Republican Party in the 1960s (although it was considered a swing state in the 1970s and 1980s). Major party candidates have won the popular vote in Georgia in every elections, except in 1968 when George Wallace of the American Independent Party carried the state. Georgia has voted for the Democratic nominee 34 times, including every possible election from 1852 until 1960, and the Republican nominee on ten occasions, including all elections from 1996 to 2016. In the 2020 election, however, Georgia proved to have one of the closest counts nationwide, with Democratic nominee Joe Biden eventually flipping the state by a 0.2 percent margin after several recounts.

Exceptions As previously mentioned, Georgia has predominantly voted Republican since the 1960s, however it did vote for the Democratic nominee in both the 1976 and 1980 elections. In these elections, Georgia native Jimmy Carter carried his home state with over two thirds of the vote in 1976, and defeated Republican favorite Ronald Reagan by 15 percent in 1980. As of 2020, Jimmy Carter is the only Georgia native to have ascended to the presidency, while John C. Frémont, who was the Republican nominee in 1856, is the only other major party nominee to have been born in Georgia. The only other times where Georgia voted Democrat since the 1960s were in 1992, where Bill Clinton defeated the incumbent President George H. W. Bush by just 0.6 percent of the popular vote (this was the closest result of any state in this election) and, as previously mentioned, in 2020 (which, again, was the closest result of any state in this election, along with Arizona). The swing in 2020 has been attributed to increased voter registration and turnout among urban and suburban voters, as a result of Democratic grassroots organizations; as well as the unpopularity of restrictive healthcare policies implemented by the Republican administration within the state.

Electoral votes

Georgia's allocation of electoral votes has generally increased over the past 230 years, with some fluctuation. It has grown from just four votes in the 1800 election, to sixteen votes in 2012; along with Michigan, this is the eighth-highest allocation in the country, contributing to Georgia's position as one of the most influential states in the 2020 election.