| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Created by | David Leip |
| URL | uselectionatlas.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Current status | active |
Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections is a website that providestables,infographs, andmaps for presidential (1789–present), senatorial (1990 and onwards), and gubernatorial (1990 and onwards) elections. Data includecandidates,political parties,popular andelectoral vote totals, andvoter turnout.U.S. county-level data is available for many years, and all data are compiled from official sources. The website has been positively received, and has been used as an authoritative reference by numerous publications.
The website was created in 1993 by electrical engineer David Leip fromMassachusetts. Leip began the Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections as a hobby after the1992 U.S. presidential election while he was attending graduate school atMIT.[1] It provides data and maps for presidential,[2] congressional,[3] and gubernatorial elections.[4] Despite the general media coloring Democrats as blue and Republicans as red (blue and red states), the Atlas website follows international conventions and usesblue for the more right-leaning Republicans andred for the more left-leaning Democrats. This is because the website predates the conventional color scheme, which has only been in place since the2000 U.S. presidential election. It also sells election data sets.[5][6][7]
The website was significantly amended in 1997, beginning with data from the1996 U.S. presidential election, acquiring information from thesecretary of state offices, which published election data online from 1996 onwards. The website was originally hosted by MIT but moved to its ownURL (uselectionatlas.org) in 1998.[1] A part of the website is the Atlas Forum, a debate and discussion chamber on U.S. and international elections and politics, as well as electoralmapmaking. In March 2020, the forum was renamed "Talk Elections" with a user and moderator going by the name Virginia becoming the forum administrator.[8]
PolitiFact has referred the website as "indispensable",[9] whileThe Washington Post has described it as "great-if-not-super-modern", and observed that "perhaps more interestingly, it lets us figure out which voters actually mattered — that is, the votes cast before and after a candidate clinched the nomination."[10] Leip's Atlas has been cited as a "preferred source for election results" by statistician and political punditNate Silver.[11] The website has been cited or used a reference for U.S. election and political data by major media outlets includingThe Atlantic,[12]CBS News,[13][14]Men's Health,[15]Politico,[16]Roll Call,[17]U.S. News & World Report,[18] andThe Wall Street Journal.[19]
Presidential general election data at the state and county (1916+) and New England town level (1992+) Presidential primary elections data at the state, county, and New England town level (2000+) Voter registration and turnout data for all 50 states, counties, and New England towns (1992+) Data in Excel. In addition the web version contains maps and tables of all this data plus Presidential general results back to 1789.
U.S. House of Representative general elections data by state, congressional district, county, and New England towns (1992–present) Senate general elections data at the state and county level (1990–present) Voter registration and turnout data for all 50 states, counties, and New England towns (1992–present) Data in Excel. In addition the web version contains maps and tables of all this data plus Presidential general results back to 1789.
Gubernatorial (governor) general elections data at the state and county level (1990–present) Data in Excel. In addition the web version contains maps and tables of this data.
National, state and county-level data and maps of presidential primaries and elections 1789–2004. Note: maps are colored red for Democrats and blue for Republicans.
Note: Democrats are represented in red and Republicans in blue contrary to the more recent practice.
This site provides general election results and maps for presidential elections from 1789 to the present, as well as presidential primary results from 1992 to the present. In addition, Dave Leip's Atlas sells election data sets, including the 2016 general election results by congressional district and the presidential election results by county from 1912 to the present.