In 2020, 51 percent of Republican respondents said that they felt confident in their state and local government to run a fair and accurate election this year. In comparison, 44 percent of Democratic respondents said they felt confident.

Presidential elections in the United States have been dominated by two parties throughout most of their history. The Democratic Party became the most powerful political party with Andrew Jackson's victory in the 1828 election, and the Republican Party emerged as their main opponents following Abraham Lincoln's victory in 1860. Since these years, Democratic candidates have won 23 U.S. presidential elections, while Republicans have won 24. The longest winning streaks of ether party came between 1860 and 1880, where Republican candidates won six elections in a row, while the Democrats won five in a row between 1932 and 1948 (four of which were won by Franklin D. Roosevelt).

Longest streaks

Although the nation's longest streak is just six elections in a row, the longest streaks of any individual state lasted for 27 consecutive elections. These belonged to Vermont, who voted Republican in all elections between 1856 and 1960, and Georgia, who voted Democrat in all elections between 1852 and 1960 (except in 1864, when it had seceded from the union). The longest current streak belongs to the District of Columbia, which has voted for the Democratic candidate in all 15 presidential elections in which it has taken part. Illinois and West Virginia are the only states with streaks for both the Democratic and Republican parties, while Kentucky's longest streaks are for both the Democratic-Republican and Democratic parties respectively.

Changing ideologies When looking at streaks that took place over 15 or more elections, most states were voting for the party that is not the most dominant there today. For example, from around the time of the American Civil War until after the Second World War, many southern states voted exclusively for the Democratic Party's nominee, whereas many northern states voted Republican between 1856 and 1908; in contrast, most of these states have voted for the opposite party's candidate in the past six or more elections. Historically, the Democratic Party was the more conservative of the two major parties, but gradually became more fiscally liberal during Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, while it became more socially liberal following the Second World War. In doing this, the Democratic Party grew more appealing to voters in urban centers and in the northeast, however this transition alienated many conservative voters in the south, who became disenfranchised by the party's policies regarding civil rights. Because of this, the Republican Party then launched its "Southern strategy" during the 1960s, moving further to the right and capitalizing on racial polarization in the south by proposing policies that enforced segregation and protected Jim Crow laws. Since this time, the Republican Party has generally been the strongest in the south, although growing Hispanic and (sub)urban populations are weakening their dominance (such as in Georgia in 2020).

As of July 2020, Republicans had a slightly less positive opinion of how well their state and local government has handled the COVID-19 outbreak than Democrats, with 15 percent of Republicans rating the response as excellent compared to 16 percent of Democrats. U.S. adults who identify as independent had a less favorable opinion, with only 10 percent rating the response as excellent – compared to 23 percent of independents who believed the response was poor.

As of December 7, 2020, 66.7 percent of the eligible voting population in the United States voted in the 2020 presidential election. As of this date, voter turnout was highest in Minnesota, at 80 percent.

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.

Following a tumultuous year of social protests and the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 Presidential Elections in the United States were more significant than ever. With such a wide platform and vast fan base, many athletes spoke out in favor of specific candidates or political parties. During an October 2020 survey in the United States, 41 percent of Democrat respondents strongly agreed with the sentiment that athletes should be free to publicly express support for political parties.

Since 1988, the share of adults in the U.S. who identify as political independents has continued to grow, often surpassing the that of Democrats or Republicans. In 2024, approximately 43 percent of adults rejected identification with the major parties, compared to 28 percent of respondents identified with the Democratic Party, and 28 percent with the Republican Party.

As of late October 2024, young voter registration is lagging across a number of states when compared to the number registered on Election Day 2020. However, voter registration in swing states Michigan and Nevada increased by over 11 percent among 18 to 29-year-olds.

There are 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, of which 52 are allocated to the state of California. Seats in the House are allocated based on the population of each state. To ensure proportional and dynamic representation, congressional apportionment is reevaluated every 10 years based on census population data. After the 2020 census, six states gained a seat - Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon. The states of California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia lost a seat.

The state of Washington has taken part in all 33 U.S. presidential elections since 1892, voting for the nationwide winner in 23 elections, giving a success rate of seventy percent. Washington voted for the Republican Party's nominee in 14 elections, and the Democratic nominee in 18; while Washington did not have a strong party affiliation throughout most of its history, it has grown to be a solid blue state in the past few decades, voting for the Democratic nominee in all elections since 1988. The only election where Washington did not vote for a major party nominee was in the 1912 election, where it voted for former-President Theodore Roosevelt, who ran as a third-party candidate for the Progressive Party. In the 2020 election, Washington proved to be a comfortable victory for the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, who won by an almost twenty percent margin in the popular vote.

Electoral votes Washington's influence has steadily grown throughout U.S. election history, with its allocation of electoral votes gradually increasing from four votes in at the turn of the twentieth century, to twelve votes since 2012. This is largely due to Washington state's high population growth, which has consistently grown at a faster rate than the national average since the 1940s; Seattle, Washington's largest city, has consistently been the fastest growing city in the U.S. in the past decade, due to the booming tech industry and high standard of living. As of the 2020 election, no U.S. president or major party nominee was born in Washington, or resided there when taking office.

The "Hamilton Electors" In the 2016 election, four of Washington's electors made headlines by not voting for Hillary Clinton, who was the statewide winner of the popular vote. Instead, three electors voted for Colin Powell, while one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle; respectively making them the first African-American Republican and Native American to receive electoral votes for president. This was part of the "Hamilton Electors" movement, which began shortly after the popular vote results were announced. Its aim it was to have 35 electors cast faithless ballots, reduce Donald Trump's electoral vote majority below 270, and bring the election before the House of Representatives. Ultimately, only seven electors cast faithless ballots (only two of which were for Trump), and the four faithless electors from Washington were fined one thousand dollars each. Following a series of subsequent legal challenges, in July 2020, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states may oblige electors to vote for their pledged candidate in future elections, therefore giving all states the power to invalidate faithless ballots in future presidential elections.

In 2022, there were 161.42 million people registered to vote in the United States. This is a decrease from the previous election, when 168.31 million people were registered to vote.

Voting requirements

While voting laws differ from state to state, the basic requirements are the same across the entire country. People are allowed to vote in elections in the United States if they are a U.S. citizen, meet their state’s residency requirements, are at least 18 years old before Election Day, and are registered to vote before the registration deadline.

Vote early and often

Generally, younger people are not registered to vote at the same rate as older individuals. Additionally, young people tend not to vote as much as older people, particularly in midterm elections. However, in the 2016 presidential election, a significant number of people across all age groups voted in the election, resulting in a high voter turnout.

According to exit polling in the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States, 62 percent of surveyed 18 to 29 year old voters reported voting for former Vice President Joe Biden. In the race to become the next president of the United States, 51 percent of voters aged 65 and older reported voting for incumbent President Donald Trump.

Of the 30 U.S. presidential elections that have been held between 1904 and 2020, the Republican Party nominee has won 15 and the Democratic Party nominee has won 15.

The winner of each presidential election is the candidate who receives a majority of the total number of electoral college "electors". Each state's number of electors is equal to its number of representatives, plus two electors for both senators the state has in the U.S. Congress.

During a June 2020 survey, registered voters among three party affiliations in the United States were asked how important they thought it was for Congress to pass a bill to reduce the federal budget deficit. According to 48 percent of respondents who identified as Republican, they believed that such a bill should be a top priority for Congress.

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.

A survey held in the United States in June 2020 revealed that 54 percent of Republicans felt that the national press treated Donald Trump very unfairly. By contrast, just six percent of Democrats said the same, with 30 percent of adults with this party ID believeing that the media's treatment of the president was very fair.

The reception of Donald Trump's tweets across party lines is a prime example of the ongoing political polarization in the United States. During a June 2020 survey, only eight percent of Democrat-identifying adults in the United States stated that they believed all or most of Trump's tweets. However, half of Republican respondents said they believed all or most of the President's tweets.

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. The use of this system is a source of debate in the U.S.; those in favor claim that it prevents candidates from focusing on the interests of urban populations, and must also appeal to smaller and less-populous states, and they say that this system preserves federalism and the two-party system. However, critics argue that this system does not represent the will of the majority of American voters, and that it encourages candidates to disproportionally focus on winning in swing states, where the outcome is more difficult to predict. 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, the popular vote has been conducted among American citizens, to help electors 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 ninety 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 49 elections, and in 18 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.

According to exit polling in the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States, 87 percent of surveyed Black voters reported voting for former Vice President Joe Biden. In the race to become the next president of the United States, 57 percent of white voters reported voting for incumbent President Donald Trump.

Throughout United States history, voter turnout among the voting eligible population has varied, ranging from below twelve percent in uncontested elections, to 83 percent in the 1876 election. In early years, turnout in presidential elections was relatively low, as the popular vote was not used in every state to decide who electors would vote for. When this was changed in the 1824 election, turnout increased dramatically, and generally fluctuated between seventy and eighty percent during the second half of the nineteenth century. Until the 1840 and 1842 elections, midterm elections also had a higher turnout rate than their corresponding presidential elections, although this trend has been reversed since these years.

Declining turnout in the twentieth century An increase in voting rights, particularly for black males in 1870 and for women in 1920, has meant that the share of the total population who are legally eligible to vote has increased significantly; yet, as the number of people eligible to vote increased, the turnout rate generally decreased. Following enfranchisement, it would take over fifty years before the female voter turnout would reach the same level as males, and over 150 years before black voters would have a similar turnout rate to whites. A large part of this was simply the lack of a voting tradition among these voter bases; however, the Supreme Court and lawmakers across several states (especially in the south) created obstacles for black voters and actively enforced policies and practices that disenfranchised black voter participation. These practices were in place from the end of the Reconstruction era (1876) until the the Voting Rights Act of 1965 legally removed and prohibited many of these obstacles; nonetheless, people of color continue to be disproportionally affected by voting restrictions to this day.

Recent decades In 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the minimum voting age in most states from 21 to 18 years old, which greatly contributed to the six and eight percent reductions in voter turnout in the 1972 and 1974 elections respectively, highlighting a distinct correlation between age and voter participation. Overall turnout remained below sixty percent from the 1970s until the 2004 election, and around forty percent in the corresponding midterms. In recent elections, increased political involvement among younger voters and those from ethnic minority backgrounds has seen these numbers rise, with turnout in the 2018 midterms reaching fifty percent. This was the highest midterm turnout in over one hundred years, leading many at the time to predict that the 2020 election would see one of the largest and most diverse voter turnouts in the past century, although these predictions then reversed with the arival of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, 2020 did prove to have the highest turnout in any presidential election since 1900; largely as a result of mail-in voting, improved access to early voting, and increased activism among grassroots organizations promoting voter registration.