List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin

As the popular vote is not used to determine who is elected as the nation's president or vice president, it is possible for the winner of the popular vote to end up losing the election, an outcome that has occurred on five occasions, most recently in 2016.

[2][3] The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (1804) provides the procedure by which the president and vice president are elected; electors vote separately for each office.

The appointment of electors is a matter for each state's legislature to determine; in 1872 and in every presidential election since 1880, all states have used a popular vote to do so.

The 1824 election was the first in which the popular vote was first fully recorded and reported.

[4] Since the 1988 election, the popular vote of presidential elections was decided by single-digit margins, the longest streak of close-election results since states began popularly electing presidents in the 1820s.

Comparison of the popular vote totals from 1900 to 2020 [ 1 ]
Democratic
Republican
All other candidates together
Presidents of the U.S. listed in a timeline graph of elections with results of the popular vote color coded for political parties from 1788 to 2024.
A gray arrow points to the name of a person who became president without having been elected as president (9 total). The double arrow indicates becoming president without having been elected as vice president (e.g. Ford). 5 other former vice presidents are underlined (14 total). The top line indicates the presidency number (e.g. 40th for Reagan) with Roman numerals indicating election and term number.