Elections in Ohio

United States presidential election results for Ohio^[1]
Year	Republican / Whig		Democratic		Third party
Year	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	3,154,834	53.18%	2,679,165	45.16%	98,447	1.66%
2016	2,841,006	51.31%	2,394,169	43.24%	301,372	5.44%
2012	2,661,437	47.60%	2,827,709	50.58%	101,788	1.82%
2008	2,677,820	46.80%	2,940,044	51.38%	103,967	1.82%
2004	2,859,768	50.81%	2,741,167	48.71%	26,973	0.48%
2000	2,351,209	49.97%	2,186,190	46.46%	168,058	3.57%
1996	1,859,883	41.02%	2,148,222	47.38%	526,329	11.61%
1992	1,894,310	38.35%	1,984,942	40.18%	1,060,712	21.47%
1988	2,416,549	55.00%	1,939,629	44.15%	37,521	0.85%
1984	2,678,560	58.90%	1,825,440	40.14%	43,619	0.96%
1980	2,206,545	51.51%	1,752,414	40.91%	324,644	7.58%
1976	2,000,505	48.65%	2,011,621	48.92%	99,747	2.43%
1972	2,441,827	59.63%	1,558,889	38.07%	94,071	2.30%
1968	1,791,014	45.23%	1,700,586	42.95%	468,098	11.82%
1964	1,470,865	37.06%	2,498,331	62.94%	0	0.00%
1960	2,217,611	53.28%	1,944,248	46.72%	0	0.00%
1956	2,262,610	61.11%	1,439,655	38.89%	0	0.00%
1952	2,100,391	56.76%	1,600,367	43.24%	0	0.00%
1948	1,445,684	49.24%	1,452,791	49.48%	37,596	1.28%
1944	1,582,293	50.18%	1,570,763	49.82%	0	0.00%
1940	1,586,773	47.80%	1,733,139	52.20%	0	0.00%
1936	1,127,855	37.44%	1,747,140	57.99%	137,594	4.57%
1932	1,227,319	47.03%	1,301,695	49.88%	80,714	3.09%
1928	1,627,546	64.89%	864,210	34.45%	16,590	0.66%
1924	1,176,130	58.33%	477,888	23.70%	362,219	17.97%
1920	1,182,022	58.47%	780,037	38.58%	59,594	2.95%
1916	514,753	44.18%	604,161	51.86%	46,172	3.96%
1912	278,168	26.82%	424,834	40.96%	334,092	32.21%
1908	572,312	51.03%	502,721	44.82%	46,519	4.15%
1904	600,095	59.75%	344,674	34.32%	59,624	5.94%
1900	543,918	52.30%	474,882	45.66%	21,273	2.05%
1896	525,991	51.86%	477,497	47.08%	10,807	1.07%
1892	405,187	47.66%	404,115	47.53%	40,862	4.81%
1888	416,054	49.51%	396,455	47.18%	27,852	3.31%
1884	400,082	50.99%	368,280	46.94%	16,248	2.07%
1880	375,048	51.73%	340,821	47.01%	9,098	1.25%
1876	330,698	50.21%	323,182	49.07%	4,769	0.72%
1872	281,852	53.24%	244,321	46.15%	3,263	0.62%
1868	280,167	54.00%	238,621	46.00%	0	0.00%
1864	265,654	56.37%	205,599	43.63%	0	0.00%
1860	221,809	51.24%	187,421	43.30%	23,632	5.46%
1856	187,497	48.51%	170,874	44.21%	28,126	7.28%
1852	152,523	43.18%	168,933	47.83%	31,732	8.98%
1848	138,359	42.12%	154,773	47.12%	35,347	10.76%
1844	155,113	49.68%	149,061	47.74%	8,050	2.58%
1840	148,157	54.10%	124,782	45.57%	903	0.33%
1836	104,958	51.87%	96,238	47.56%	1,137	0.56%

Elections in Ohio are held on a county, state, and federal level. The Republicans are strongest in the rural Northwest, the affluent Cincinnati and Columbus suburbs, and have made gains in Appalachian Southeast Ohio and the industrial, working-class Northeast in the 21st century. The Democrats rely on the state's major cities, and have made gains in educated suburban areas in recent years.

The state was strongly Republican from the party's inception, as it voted Republican in every election from 1856 to 1908. The northern Union-aligned part of the state kept the state Republican, and consistently narrowed edged out the Democratic and Appalachia-influenced southern Ohio. Since 1896, however, Ohio has voted for the winning candidate, except for Franklin D Roosevelt in 1944, John F Kennedy in 1960, and Joe Biden in 2020. This was due to Democratic gains in the northeastern part of the state. The state has not backed a losing candidate in consecutive elections since 1848. Due to a close split in party registration, it has been key battleground state. No Republican has ever been elected president without winning Ohio. In 2004, Ohio was the tipping point state, as Bush won the state with 51% of the vote, giving him its 20 electoral votes and the margin he needed in the Electoral College for re-election. The state was closely contested in 2008 and 2012, with Barack Obama winning narrowly on both occasions. Ohio has been a bellwether state in presidential elections.

Since 2016, Ohio's bellwether status has been questioned given that Donald Trump won it by 8 points, the largest margin for each party since 1988, and then won the state by a similar margin in 2020 despite losing nationwide.^[2]^[3]

In a 2020 study, Ohio was ranked as the 17th hardest state for citizens to vote in.^[4]

Federal elections

House: 1964, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022
Senate: 1964, 2006, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2022
Presidential primary: 2008 Democratic 2008 Republican 2012 Republican 2016 Democratic 2016 Republican 2020 Democratic 2020 Republican

State elections

Local elections

Election security

In the leadup to the 2020 Ohio elections, by February 2020, eight Ohio counties had failed to complete an election security checklist required by Ohio's top election official. One county, Van Wert County Board of Elections, was placed on administrative oversight because it provided no plan for complying with the directive.^[5]