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Presidential Elections 1789-2004 by 
Presidential Elections and Majority Rule by
The Electoral College that governs America has been with us since 1804, when Thomas Jefferson's supporters redesigned it for his re-election. The Jeffersonians were motivated by the principle of majority rule. Gone were the days when a president would be elected by acclamation, as GeorgeWashington had been. Instead, given the emergence of intense two-party competition, the Jeffersonians wanted to make sure that the Electoral College awarded the presidency to the candidate of the majority, rather than minority, party. They also envisioned that a candidate would win by amassing amajority of Electoral College votes secured from states where the candidate's party was in the majority.For most of American history, this system has worked as intended, producing presidents who won Electoral College victories derived from state-based majorities. In the last quarter-century, however, there have been three significant aberrations from the Jeffersonian design: 1992, 2000, and 2016. Ineach of these years, the Electoral College victory depended on states where the winner received only a minority of votes.In this authoritative history of the American Electoral College system, Edward Foley analyzes the consequences of the unparalleled departure from the Jeffersonians' original intent - and delineates what we can do about it.
Ballots, Bullets, and Bargains: American foreign policy and presidential elections by 
The American Presidency for Beginners by
The President of the United States is an office that attracts men of all character. From George Washington to Barack Obama, the office has been held by farmers, scholars, veterans, and lawyers from all regions of the United States. The American Presidency For Beginners tells a concise history of the actions and consequences of all 44 presidents. The evolution of the presidency—from the weak curator of Congress to becoming the titan of policy, both domestic and foreign—is highlighted in 10 sections. The American Presidency For Beginners is a must read for those who find the position of commander in chief compelling and who want to learn more about the eclectic personalities that have led the US.
Quest for the Presidency: The Storied and Surprising History of Presidential Campaigns in America by
Quest for the Presidency gathers in a single volume the compelling stories behind every presidential campaign in American history, from 1789 through 2020. Bob Riel takes us inside the 1800 clash between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the 1860 election that launched the Civil War, the 1948 whistle-stop comeback of Harry Truman, the Kennedy-Nixon drama of 1960, the 1980 Reagan Revolution, the historic 2008 election of Barack Obama, the turbulent 2020 battle between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and everything in between. This engaging and insightful book includes a trove of entertaining stories about campaigns and candidates, and it goes beyond the campaign tales to also consider the threads that link elections across time. It sheds light on the continually evolving story of American democracy in a way that helps us to better understand present-day politics.
Federal Elections Commission (FEC)
Every two years, the Commission publishes Federal Elections, a compilation of the official, certified federal election results obtained from each state’s election office and other official sources. 1996 - .
A guide from The National Archives on what the electoral college is and its functions.
Presidential elections information including the most recent elections.
270towin.com is an interactive Electoral College map for 2016 and a history of Presidential elections in the United States. Since electoral votes are generally allocated on an "all or none" basis by state, the election of a U.S President is about winning the popular vote in enough states to achieve 270 electoral votes, a majority of the 538 that are available.
A new project by the Internet Archive in conjunction with their TV News Archive. Collects political TV ads in crucial early 2016 primary election states and critical media markets. Not clear if it will continue past the primary season. In addition to the videos, you can download a unique list of all ads they've collected and details of the airings, including the candidate, sponsor and type, number of airings, station, location, program type, negativity, and more.
ProPublica Political Advertisements from Facebook
This database, updated daily, contains ads that ran on Facebook and were submitted by thousands of ProPublica users worldwide via a browser extension that automatically collected advertisements on their Facebook pages. Ads are classified using machine learning to identify likely political ads. Includes numerous data fields.
David Leip's Atlas of Presidential Elections
offers the detailed national results for major and minor candidate for U.S. presidential election from 1789 to present. It contains information on candidates, parties, electoral vote total, maps, charts and more.
The American Presidency Project
One of the most comprehensive collections of web resources on the American presidency, including documents, public papers, executive orders, addresses, press conferences, debates, election data, approval ratings, and much more. Data topics include Relations with Congress / Popularity / Public Appearances / Growth of the Executive Branch / Presidential Selection / State of the Union, and Inaugural Address Charts / Presidential Disability.
Created by the National Museum of American History, it provides links to websites on the US presidency and presidents, bibliographies, an interactive timeline, hands-on activities, reference resources, and more.
Commission of Presidential Debates (CPD)
CPD provides transcripts, images, and video (real or enactments) of presidential election debates starting with 1858.
Voting America: United States Politics, 1840-2008
Created at the University of Richmond, this site provides a series of cinematic maps and commentary analyzing presidential elections.
Created by the America Museum of the Moving Images in cooperation with the Political Communication Center, the University of Oklahoma provides a history of presidential campaign commercials starting with 1952.
Presidents of the United States From 1789 -
POTUS, a project of the Internet Public Library, includes biographies and portraits of the president, the first lady, and the vice-president, highlights of the presidency, election results, a list of cabinet officers, and sometimes biographical information about cabinet officers, historical documents, and more.
Presidential Elections 1860-1912
Contains cartoons from Harper's Weekly and other leading journals, Library Congress Collection of American Political Prints; 1860 - 1912.
Presidents of the United States
Created by the Library of Congress, it presents the pages from records of Congressional debates and Congressional action on presidential elections, contested information, and electoral votes from 1789 to 1873.
Contains transcripts of speeches, TV ads, and debates of 12 US general election Presidential campaigns from 1952 through 1996.
Federal Election Commission lists acronyms of political action committees.
The Elections of 1789 and 1792 by 
Almost President : The Men Who Lost the Race but Changed the Nation by
Veteran political journalist Scott Farris tells the stories of legendary presidential also-rans, from Henry Clay to Stephen Douglas, from William Jennings Bryan to Thomas Dewey, and from Adlai Stevenson to Al Gore. He also includes concise profiles of every major candidate nominated for president who never reached the White House but who helped promote the success of American democracy. Farris explains how Barry Goldwater achieved the party realignment that had eluded FDR, how George McGovern paved the way for Barack Obama, and how Ross Perot changed the way all presidential candidates campaign. There is Al Smith, the first Catholic nominee for president; and Adlai Stevenson, the candidate of the "eggheads" who remains the beau ideal of a liberal statesman. And Farris explores the potential legacies of recent runners-up John Kerry and John McCain. The book also includes compact and evocative portraits of such men as John C. Fremont, the first Republican Party presidential candidate; and General Winfield Scott, whose loss helped guarantee the Union victory in the Civil War. This new edition of Almost President brings the work up-to-date with a section that explores the results and ramifications of the 2012 presidential election.
American Cyclone : Theodore Roosevelt and His 1900 Whistle-Stop Campaign by
Biographers have chronicled every significant period of Roosevelt's life with one exception, and American Cyclone fills that gap. His nomination for the vice presidency was Roosevelt's debut as a candidate for national office. American Cyclone presents the story of his campaign, a whirlwind effort highlighted by an astounding whistle-stop tour of 480 communities across twenty-three states. Eighteen of those states gave a plurality of votes to the McKinley-Roosevelt ticket, a gain of five states for the Republicans over 1896. Everywhere Roosevelt went, admiring throngs and dramatic events helped forge him into the man who would soon be the twenty-sixth president of the United States. Returning from the war, Roosevelt was familiar to millions of people across the country as a determined leader. As he interacted with crowds of hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands, Roosevelt felt their eagerness to see and hear him. Accordingly, for the first time, this whistle-stop campaign marks the development of the confidence and maturity that would transform Roosevelt into a national leader.
America at the Ballot Box : Elections and Political History by
America at the Ballot Box uses the history of presidential elections to illuminate American political democracy and its development from the early Republic to the late twentieth century. Some of the contributions in America at the Ballot Box focus on elections that resulted in dramatic political change, including Jefferson's defeat of Adams in 1800, the 1860 election of Lincoln, and Reagan's 1980 landslide victory. Others concentrate on contests whose importance lies more in the way they illuminate the broad, underlying processes of political change, such as the corruption controversy of Cleveland's acrimonious election in 1884 or the advent of television advertising during the 1952 campaign, when Eisenhower defeated Stevenson. Another set of essays takes a thematic approach, exploring the impact of foreign relations, Anglophobia, and political communications over long periods of electoral time. Uniting all of the chapters is the common conviction that elections provide a unique vantage point from which to view the American political system. Ranging from landmark contests to less influential victories and defeats, the essays by leading political historians seek to rehabilitate the historical significance of presidential elections and integrate them into the broader evolution of American government, policies, and politics.
Atlas of the 2016 Elections by
The 2016 presidential election was one of the most dramatic upsets in U.S. political history. Virtually all pre-election polls indicated Democrat Hillary Clinton ahead of Republican Donald Trump in the popular vote and Electoral College. The Atlas of the 2016 Elections explains the surprising Trump victory with a series of unique maps unleashing the illustrative power of cartography and the explanatory power of history and political geography.
