According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, Donald Trump received the most support from white voters between the ages of 45 and 64. In comparison, 84 percent of Black voters between the ages of 18 and 29 reported voting for Kamala Harris.

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.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, Donald Trump received the most support from men between the ages of 45 and 64. In comparison, 61 percent of women between the ages of 18 and 29 reported voting for Kamala Harris.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, 57 percent of surveyed white voters reported voting for Donald Trump. In contrast, 85 percent of Black voters reported voting for Kamala Harris.

In the 2020 election, around 42.8 percent of Asian voters exercised their right to vote. An additional 57.7 percent of Black voters voted. Voting rates have generally declined in presidential elections since 1996.

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.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, almost two-thirds of voters who had never attended college reported voting for Donald Trump. In comparison, a similar share of voters with advanced degrees reported voting for Kamala Harris.

Since 1964, voter turnout rates in U.S. presidential elections have generally fluctuated across all age groups, falling to a national low in 1996, before rising again in the past two decades. Since 1988, there has been a direct correlation with voter participation and age, as people become more likely to vote as they get older. Participation among eligible voters under the age of 25 is the lowest of all age groups, and in the 1996 and 2000 elections, fewer than one third of eligible voters under the age of 25 participated, compared with more than two thirds of voters over 65 years.

During the weeks leading up to the presidential election, early voting began in almost all states, with over 80 million ballots being cast nationally as of Election Day. Although 39 percent of mail-in and early in-person votes were cast by voters aged 65 or older, ten percent of those aged 18 to 29 years old voted early.

In the 1824 U.S presidential election, which was the first where a popular vote was used to determine the overall winner, approximately three percent of the U.S. population voted in the election, while only one percent actually voted for the winner. Over the following decades, restrictions that prevented non-property owning males from voting were gradually repealed, and almost all white men over the age of 21 could vote by the 1856 election. The next major development was the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution following the American Civil War, which granted suffrage to all male citizens of voting age, regardless of race. Turnout then grew to almost twenty percent at the turn of the century, however Jim Crow laws played a large part in keeping these numbers lower than they potentially could have been, by disenfranchising black communities in the south and undoing much of the progress made during the Reconstruction Era. Extension of voting rights Female suffrage, granted to women in 1920, was responsible for the largest participation increase between any two elections in U.S. history. Between the 1916 and 1920 elections, overall turnout increased by almost seven percent, and it continued to grow to 38 percent by the 1940 election; largely due to the growth in female participation over time. Following a slight reduction during the Second World War and 1948 elections, turnout remained at between 36 and forty percent from the 1950s until the 1990s. Between these decades, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment in 1971 respectively re-enfranchised many black voters in the south and reduced the voting age in all states from 21 to 18 years old. Participation among female voters has also exceeded male participation in all elections since 1980. Recent trends The 1992 election was the first where more than forty percent of the total population cast ballots, and turnout has been above forty percent in all presidential elections since 2004. Along with the extension of voting rights, the largest impact on voter turnout has been the increase in life expectancy throughout the centuries, almost doubling in the past 150 years. As the overall average age has risen, so too has the share of the total population who are eligible to vote, and older voters have had the highest turnout rates since the 1980s. Another factor is increased political involvement among ethnic minorities; while white voters have traditionally had the highest turnout rates in presidential elections, black voters turnout has exceeded the national average since 2008. Asian and Hispanic voter turnouts have also increased in the past twenty years, with the growing Hispanic vote in southern and border states expected to cause a major shift in U.S. politics in the coming decades.

In terms of the most popular presidents, in the 1940 election, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first president to have been elected by more than one fifth of the total population. Three presidents were elected by more than 22 percent of the total population, respectively Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Richard Nixon in 1972 and Barack Obama in 2008, while Ronald Reagan's re-election in 1984 saw him become the only president in U.S. history to win with the support of more than 23 percent of the total population. While the vote count for the 2020 election is still to be finalized, President-elect Joe Biden has already received 81.28 million votes as of December 02, which would also translate to over 24.5 percent of the total population, and will likely near 25 percent by the end of the counting process.

United States presidential elections are quadrennial elections that decide who will be the President and Vice President of the United States for the next four years. Voter turnout has ranged between 54 and 70 percent since 1964, with white voters having the highest voter turnout rate (particularly when those of Hispanic descent are excluded). In recent decades, turnout among black voters has got much closer to the national average, and in 2008 and 2012, the turnout among black voters was higher than the national average, exceeded only by non-Hispanic white voters; this has been attributed to Barack Obama's nomination as the Democratic nominee in these years, where he was the first African American candidate to run as a major party's nominee. Turnout among Asian and Hispanic voters is much lower than the national average, and turnout has even been below half of the national average in some elections. This has been attributed to a variety of factors, such as the absence of voting tradition in some communities or families, the concentration of Asian and Hispanic communities in urban (non-swing) areas, and a disproportionate number of young people (who are less likely to vote).

The 1960 US presidential election was the first to take place in all fifty states (although not Washington DC), and the first time where the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution prevented the incumbent president from running for a third term in office. The race was contested between John F. Kennedy of the Democratic Party, and incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon of the Republican Party. Kennedy defeated future-President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Democratic National Convention and asked Johnson to serve as his running mate, while Nixon won the Republican nomination comfortably, despite an early challenge from Nelson Rockefeller. This campaign is also notable for being the first to use televised debates between the candidates, including one that used split-screen technology, allowing the candidates to speak live from opposite sides of the country.

Campaign

Early in the campaign, both candidates were vibrant and charismatic, and garnered a loyal follower base. Kennedy spent most of his campaign criticizing the previous administration for falling behind the Soviet Union in terms of the military, economy and the space race, while Nixon highlighted the achievements made by Eisenhower's administration, and promised to build on them. Most historians agree that Kennedy's campaign was more structured and used better tactics than Nixon's, by canvassing heavily in swing states and districts instead of giving equal attention to all parts of the country (as Nixon did), with Kennedy focusing on metropolitan areas while Johnson canvassed in the south. Nixon's campaign was also more prone to mistakes, such as not preparing and refusing make-up for televised debates (making him look ill), while his running mate promised to elect African-Americans to the cabinet, however this just alienated black voters who were ambivalent in their reaction. Kennedy's connection with Martin Luther King Jr. also helped him to take a much larger share of the black vote than his opponent.

Results and Controversy

The popular vote was split by fewer than 120,000 out of seventy million votes. Kennedy took 49.7 percent of the popular vote, while Nixon took 49.5 percent. Nixon, however took more states than Kennedy, carrying 26 to Kennedy's 22, but Kennedy's tactical campaigning paid off, as his 22 states returned 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219. Unpledged Democratic electors in the south gave 15 electoral votes to Harry F. Byrd, as they opposed Kennedy's stance on civil rights. Due to the close nature of the results, many Republicans called for recounts and accused the Kennedy campaign of cheating or committing voter fraud. For example, they highlighted that more votes were cast in certain districts of Texas (Johnson's home state) than the number of registered voters, and when Nixon lost Illinois despite winning 92 out of 101 counties, many suggested a link between the Kennedy campaign and organized crime syndicates in Chicago. These claims have subsequently been proven to be false, and historians generally agree that Kennedy's campaigning methods and Nixon's wastefulness won Kennedy the election. John F. Kennedy was subsequently named the 35th President of the United States, and is remembered favorably as one of the most popular and charismatic leaders in US history. Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, less than three years into his first term, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Lyndon B. Johnson.

According to exit polling in the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States, 56 percent of surveyed females reported voting for former Vice President Joe Biden. In the race to become the next president of the United States, 49 percent of men reported voting for incumbent President Donald Trump.

According to an October 2024 survey, young Americans were much more likely to vote for Kamala Harris in the November 2024 presidential elections. Of those between the ages of 18 and 29, 60 percent said they were planning on voting for Harris, compared to 33 percent who said they planned on voting for Trump. In contrast, Trump was much more popular among those between 45 and 64 years old.

This graph shows the democratic and republican percentages of two-party presidential vote in the U.S. from 1948 to 2008 for the black voters. 65% of the voters voted for the democratic candidate in 1948.

According to exit polling in ten key states of the 2024 presidential election in the United States, 46 percent of voters with a 2023 household income of 30,000 U.S. dollars or less reported voting for Donald Trump. In comparison, 51 percent of voters with a total family income of 100,000 to 199,999 U.S. dollars reported voting for Kamala Harris.

According to a survey just days after the election, 47 percent of surveyed Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 reported voting at their assigned polling places or vote centers on Election Day. In comparison, only 23 percent of those 65 and older voted at their assigned polling places or vote centers on Election Day.

The 2008 US presidential election was contested between Barack Obama of the Democratic Party, and John McCain of the Republican Party. This was the first election since 1952 where the incumbent president or vice president was not on the ballot, as President George W. Bush was not eligible to run for a third term, and Vice President Cheney chose not to run. The initial Democratic frontrunner was Hillary Clinton, however Barack Obama then moved ahead in the polls shortly before the Iowa caucus, where he won a surprising victory, before Clinton's victory in New Hampshire set off a competitive race between the two (Joe Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucus and joined the Obama campaign as his running mate). Following Super Tuesday, Obama and Clinton were neck-and-neck, but throughout the remaining primaries Obama gradually moved ahead and sealed the Democratic nomination in June 2008, making him the first African American to win the nomination of a major US party. Early in the Republican primaries, former New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani led the polls, before Mitt Romney and John McCain also gained popularity by the time of the Iowa caucus. McCain then became the favorite following the New Hampshire primaries, with Giuliani dropping out and endorsing McCain before Super Tuesday, with Romney doing the same two days after the Tuesday primaries. McCain was eventually named as the Republican candidate, with widespread support across his party. No third party candidates made a significant impact on the election. Campaign The Iraq War was the main topic of debate early in the campaign, with Obama strongly against the war, while McCain supported the invasion and called for an increased security presence in the region. The age difference between the candidates also became an issue, as it had done in the 1996 campaign; and similarly to Clinton, Obama (47) avoided mentioning his opponent's age (72) directly, instead claiming that his politics and ideas were old fashioned, while McCain pointed to his experience, and appointed Sarah Palin as his running mate to combat these insinuations. Obama also proposed universal healthcare, setting in motion proposals for what would later be known as "Obamacare". The development of the financial crisis of 2008 then went on to dominate the election campaign, as the world faced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s. McCain refused to debate Obama until some progress had been made on the issue, and suspended his campaign in order to work on preventative measures in the Senate that would help the economy. McCain's actions in the Senate were then scrutinized heavily, and public perception was that he was not making a significant contribution to the proceedings. Results Obama won a convincing victory, and became the 44th President of the United states, and was the first African American to hold this position (this was also the first time in US history where neither the president nor vice president were white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants). Obama won approximately 53 percent of the popular vote, giving him a 68 percent share of the electoral vote. McCain received the remainder of the electoral votes, and took just under 56 percent of the popular votes, with the remainder of the popular votes split among various third party candidates. Much of Obama's success has been attributed to his energy and message of hope, particularly in the face of an economic crisis, while McCain was often seen as the continuation of President Bush's policies, whose popularity was at it's lowest ever levels. Obama won this election with the highest number of popular votes for a winning candidate in US history, receiving 3.4 million more votes than he received in 2012, and 6.3 million more votes than Donald Trump in 2016.

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).

This graph shows the percentage of votes of the 2012 presidential elections in the United States on November 6, 2012, by age. According to the exit polls, about 60 percent of 18 to 29 year-old voters nationwide have voted for Barack Obama.