Drew DeSilver

Here’s a look back at some of the closest races of elections past and an assessment of just how common such races are.

In the 2016 general election, voters submitted nearly 33.5 million mail ballots, but more than 400,000 (1.2% of the total) weren’t counted.

Votes cast on Election Day have grown steadily less significant over the past several election cycles as a share of total votes cast.

We developed this explainer to help people understand how, and why, the complex U.S. electoral process is even more so this time around.

Mail-in ballots accounted for just over half of this year’s primary votes cast in the 37 states (plus D.C.) for which data is available.

Here are five important things to know before the first presidential debate kicks off next month in Cleveland.

Response to the pandemic has pushed the federal budget higher than it's been in decades, but Americans are slightly less concerned about the deficit than in recent years.

Black adults are about five times as likely as whites to say they’ve been unfairly stopped by police because of their race or ethnicity.

The last year the Postal Service recorded any profit was 2006, and its cumulative losses since then totaled $83.1 billion as of March 31.

Despite some broad federal guidelines, claimants still face a hodgepodge of different state rules governing how they can qualify for benefits.