Elections and Presidents

Learn about Presidents, their competition and voting results for elections dating back to 1976.

Learn about how groups voted in presidential elections dating back to 1976.

Presidents starting with Franklin Delano Roosevelt began availing themselves of the power of polling, often by retaining staff pollsters who often became some of the president's most trusted advisors. The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research houses several collections of presidential polling. This overview of the history of presidential pollsters is a link to some seminal opinion research that would influence American policies and the various administration's approaches toward the American public.

The Roper Center holds the most comprehensive collection of U.S. election-related polling data including the National Election Pool and Votecast exit polls, earlier media-sponsored exit polls, pre-election opinion polls, as well as the federally funded ANES (American National Election Studies), CES (Congressional Election Study), and the newest addition, the CMS (Collaborative Midterm Survey). Each of these surveys utilizes a different methodology and therefore each has strengths and weaknesses. This guide is intended to help researchers find the data that is best suited to their research question.

National exit polls consist of presidential and/or congressional vote questions in addition to questions on gubernatorial races, important issues affecting the vote decision, presidential approval and a number of current national issues. With the exception of the 1972 CBS News Exit Poll, all include basic demographic variables such as gender, race, education, income, and age, among others. Sample sizes for these studies usually range from 8,000 to 20,000 voters, with the largest samples coming from the 1986 and 1988 ABC News Exit Polls which consist of over 50,000 interviews.

The Roper Center is making available to researchers its entire collection of state election day exit polls. This collection consists of numerous studies dating back to 1978 right up to the most recent polls conducted in 2012. Questionnaires and computer-readable datafiles are available for each study. Typically, state election day exit polls consist of congressional and/or gubernatorial vote questions in addition to questions on important statewide and local issues at the time of the polls. Like national polls, state Election Day exit polls include basic demographic variables in each study. Sample sizes usually range from 800-2000 respondents.

The Roper Center has made available its entire collection of Primary exit polls. Primary exit polls datasets include standard demographic makeup of interviewee and questions pertinent to the issues of each state. Sample sizes for these studies usually range from 800-2,000 respondents. A “d” or an “r” next to a state signifies that the Democratic and Republican primary exit polls exist on separate datasets. Occasionally, only one or the other parties is polled.

See what the approval rating is/was like for Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Donald Trump.

Exit polls for US National Election day, State election day and State Primary. Also, Exit Polls FAQ and a sample document for application to receive exit polls.