Accounts of voting machines flipping votes are typically the result of misclicks or screen miscalibration, despite claims on social media.

A technician bought an old, likely-decommissioned voting machine from 2013 and took it apart to see how a would-be hacker might be able to exploit its vulnerabilities. Get a sense of the needs for secure, up-to-date voting machines with this...

The USA has seen some crazy elections. Election fraud is vanishingly rare now, but here are the craziest cases of election fraud in U.S. history.

What’s actually at stake when someone casts their vote in a US election? CNN’s “Election 101” podcast series provides ten episodes summarizing some of the basics of democratic elections. The ins and outs of voting are highlighted in 15-minute episodes on voter registration and voting by mail. Additional segments highlight how the electoral system works, how ballots are counted, the Electoral College, why it takes so long to get election results, and more.

Presidential pollsters in the US have had some embarrassing failures. Here’s a catalog of those miscalls, from the scholar who literally wrote the book on them.

In this article, Silver weighs the Electoral College's flaws—especially popular-vote inversions—against its advantages, arguing it can limit the effect of surplus votes in heavily one-sided states and encourage broader competition.

This article explains how the Constitution leaves most rules for choosing electors to the states. Today, parties typically select elector slates through state conventions, rewarding loyal supporters who formally cast votes weeks after Election Day.

The red–blue color scheme used on election night maps emerged in the 20th century as television networks adopted color graphics to make results easier to follow. The association of red with Republicans and blue with Democrats later became standardized.

Voter turnout reached 66% in 2020—the highest since 1908—and 64% in 2024, tied for second-highest with 1960. In 2024, Trump benefited from higher turnout among his prior voters and new voters.

Computational methods are convincing a number of judges that some state district maps are drawn illegally. Here's a simple overview of how it works.

Leading up to the 2016 election, misinformation about both Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and even Barack Obama flourished on Facebook. In the final stretch leading up to the election, more than one-quarter of Americans visited a fake news site supporting either Trump or Clinton. Many fake news studies have widely different methods of measuring and assessing the impact of fake news, so the actual impact it had in the 2016 election is unclear.

This article breaks down demographic data to show what it means for American elections. According to the latest US Census, the US is growing increasingly diverse. As the population becomes more diverse, so does the electorate.

In ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no one wins a majority, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated, and their votes are reassigned until a candidate surpasses 50%, avoiding separate runoff elections.

Since 1965, federal oversight has blocked thousands of state-level voting changes—including redistricting plans—by requiring approval for measures that could affect minority representation, a process scaled back by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Defenders of the Electoral College argue it preserves federalism, forces candidates to build broad national coalitions, magnifies victory margins to reduce recount disputes, and limits incentives for voter fraud by containing the impact of contested ballots within individual states.

A presidential candidate is declared the winner once they reach 270 of the Electoral College’s 538 votes. This interactive map from 270 to win shows how winning individual states shifts the path to victory on election night.

Cracking and packing are gerrymandering techniques. Cracking splits opposing voters across districts, diluting their power. Packing concentrates their votes into a few districts, wasting them in overwhelming majorities for one party.

Major retailers like Target have stopped accepting checks in recent years as real-time payment systems are increasingly being implemented across the US. This shift is considered an improvement in safety—as checks are vulnerable to fraud—but can lead to some exclusion for those without access to digital devices.

In settling on the rules for how the US elects presidents, the Founding Fathers coalesced around a system built on two inputs: Votes from individual voters, and the accumulation of votes from specially chosen Electors. The latter comprise the US Electoral College, and this Washington Post article explains why it exists, how it works, and how its 538 electors collectively decide presidential elections.

Bad actors are not solely using deepfake technology to manipulate images. They can also manipulate audio for political purposes. In this example, eligible voters are asked to skip the 2024 New Hampshire Democratic primary.

This article argues that the Electoral College no longer reflects modern democratic norms, disproportionately advantages smaller states, and warrants broader reform and national debate.

Even after a winner is projected, the election is not complete. Between Election Day and Inauguration Day, electors formally cast votes and Congress meets in a joint session to certify the results, following a constitutionally defined timeline.

Courts randomly draw prospective jurors from these sources, then mail qualification questionnaires. Those who qualify may be summoned for voir dire, where judges and attorneys question candidates before seating a final jury.

Humans are hardwired to make mental mistakes called cognitive biases, affecting the way we view our world. Among the most common are confirmation bias (seeking only evidence that affirms your views), authority bias (overweighting things said by authority figures), groupthink (assimilating ideas to avoid conflict), and more. This quick chart gives an overview of some of the most notable ways we mislead ourselves.

Studies of the 2020 redistricting cycle show that map-drawing strategies locked in predictable outcomes. The result was fewer competitive races, more incumbents shielded from challengers, and representatives less responsive to broader voter preferences.