NYU Stern · 2026

Three volumes

The Public Mind

Data essays on American partisanship, ideology and the political map

Vishal Singh

County results in every presidential election, 1868 to 202440 ridgelines, one for each presidential election from 1868 at the top to 2024 at the bottom. Each ridge shows how county results were distributed, from 100 points more Republican on the left to 100 points more Democratic on the right, with each county weighted by the two-party votes cast in it. Every ridge is drawn on one vertical scale and encloses the same total area, so a wider ridge is a lower one. The area left of zero is red and the area right of zero is blue. Four ridges are outlined: 1932, Hoover against Roosevelt; 1964, Goldwater against Johnson; 1976, Ford against Carter; 2024, Trump against Harris (Republican nominee first). The spread of county margins, a vote-weighted standard deviation, was widest in 1924 at 36.9 points, narrowest in 1976 at 18.4 points, and 32.7 points in 2024. In 1976, with a two-party margin across all counties of 2.1 points Democratic, 10% of votes were cast in counties decided by more than 30 points; in 2024, with a margin of 1.5 points Republican, 38% were. Alaska and third-party votes are left out of every ridge. Counties with returns number 1,701 in 1868 and about 3,100 from 1932, so the early ridges describe fewer places, and each ridge counts votes cast, so people kept from voting are not in it.
Each ridge is one election; wider and lower means county results were more spread out. Presidential county returns, 1868 to 2024 (Algara and Amlani; MEDSL for 2024), weighted by two-party votes cast and smoothed. Alaska and third-party votes are left out. Returns cover 1,701 counties in 1868 and about 3,100 from 1932.