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Search Political News & Election Results in Newspapers

Explore your family history in political newspaper articles and election results. Research historical political elections in newspapers that determined our leaders who have served as pubilc officials and more.

Enter your ancestor's name below and we'll search political news & election results to help you learn more about your family history.

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Try different name spellings

Ex: Jenson, Jensen, Jens?n; Carrol, Carol, Caroll, Car*
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Try variations of the first name

Ex: William, Will OR Bill, Wm., W., etc.
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Try adding a word to narrow the hit results

Ex: occupation, university, home town, etc.
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Try excluding a word to narrow the hit results

Ex: Reduce records from a particular state. Ex: Texas

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Search Political News & Election Returns By State

Check your selection to search political news & election returns by state, city, or newspaper title.
  1. United States Presidential Election Results in Old Newspapers - President Washington and Lincoln
  2. American Colonial Congress Election Results - Federalists vs Democrats
  3. American Colonial CT State Election Nominees 1784
  4. Local County and City Election News in Old Newspapers

  1. Presidential Election Results
  2. Congressional Election Results
  3. Colonial & State Election Returns
  4. Local County & City Election Returns

  1. Ever since George Washington was unanimously elected as the first president of the United States in 1789, our country has held regular presidential elections every four years to vote on candidates to lead our country.

    Our historical newspaper archives contain presidential election returns from the very first U.S. presidential election up to modern-day elections for presidents. Research these U.S. presidential election results and discover the final electoral voting tallies of historical political races that decided who would be the next president of the United States.

  2. Discover the history of U.S. congressional elections in newspaper articles. Trace the key decision makers elected into U.S. congressional offices that have represented the interests of the people and participated in shaping our country's laws.

    Explore old election returns, dating back to the days of the Federalist Party that dominated early American politics, up to the present-day bipartisan U.S. political system of the Republicans and Democrats. Research online the election results for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that have decided our nation's leaders.

  3. Explore the Colonial-era and state election results that have determined our government representatives and shaped American history in our newspaper archives. Discover more about the leaders elected to direct our country's Colonial and state affairs from the 1700s forward.

    Research gubernatorial and legislative election returns at the state level to discover the electoral candidates and final victors elected to serve in public office. From the American Colonial elections to U.S. state elections, find out who was elected to represent each colony and U.S. state throughout the history of our nation.

  4. Discover the local political history of your U.S. county, city or hometown in old newspapers. Explore the local election results that include your ancestors who ran for positions to serve on the county board of commissioners, city council and more.

    Find out who ran and won the locally held elections for public offices such as mayor, county commissioner, city councilor and other local government offices. Research the local political races, discover their outcomes, and learn more about the people who played a role in shaping your local government.

Political Election Results Found in Newspapers:

  • Presidential Elections

  • Congressional Elections

  • State Elections

  • County & City Elections

And many more!

Research U.S. National, State & Local Election Results

It is estimated that over one million offices are filled in electoral cycles across the United States every year, bringing in newly-elected public officials to conduct our government's business. Newspapers print the results of these elections to inform the public who will be serving in our public offices over the next terms.

You can discover the election returns for ballots cast at the U.S. national, state and local level in our historical newspaper archives.

Explore the final vote counts that determined our election winners, including the closest political races and landslide victories. From U.S. presidential elections to the mayoral elections for cities across America, discover the candidates and final ballot counts that decided the outcomes of the most famous elections in our nation's history. Watch the past unfold in the old electoral ballots, as people from different ethnicities won historic elections to serve in U.S. politics for the first time.

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Historical Newspaper Archives Search Tips

Newspaper Archives Last & First Name Search

  • Using both name search fields returns newspaper articles in which the surname is automatically "near2" the first name.
    • This means the newspaper archive search engine automatically finds occurrences of the first and last names within two words of each other.
    • This helps to find occurrences of middle names or initials in the newspaper articles, without having to enter or remember them.
  • The "near2" search command is not order specific—meaning your newspaper search will retrieve the person's name no matter in what order it is mentioned: the first name then last name or the last name then first name.
    • This search default is intended to bring you the most occurrences of the name you are searching for in the online newspaper archives.
  • However, if the person's name is popular, like Smith, try using some of the available search options such as location, date range, and keyword, in order to narrow your search to the specific Smith you are looking for (see below).

Using Advanced Search in the Newspaper Archive Database

  • There are two keyword search boxes to narrow your search for newspaper articles: "Include keywords" box and "Exclude keywords" box (see below).
  • Use the Date search box to enter a specific date or date range of the newspaper content you want to search online.

Using Keywords & Quotation Marks to Search Newspapers

  • All the searches for historical newspaper articles are full-text keyword searches against OCR-generated ASCII text.
  • By using the "Include keywords" box and/or "Exclude keywords" box, you can narrow or expand your online newspaper article search.
  • Put phrases in quotes like "John Adams" in the "Include" keyword box to limit the newspaper article search to that exact name—versus using the last/first name search that brings back results matching John near2 Adams.
  • If you find too many names in the newspaper archive search results, narrow your search even more by typing names or places you do NOT want in your search in the "Exclude" box.

Using Boolean Operators to Search Newspaper Archives

  • Use AND, OR, ADJx (order specific), NEARx (order non-specific) and Wildcards, such as "?" and "*")

Broaden or narrow newspaper search queries

  • by emptying filled-in fields to broaden your search, or filling in empty fields to narrow your search.

Display newspaper search results in different ways, such as:

  • Best matches (this is the newspaper search default)
  • Oldest items (based on newspaper publication dates)
  • Newest items (based on newspaper publication dates)
  • Once changed, the selection will remain the default until you change it again.

Search Newspapers by Date Range

  • If you know the date of the newspaper content you are seeking, then use the "Date" search box.
    • Enter a specific date or a date range—a variety of date formats are accepted.
    • Examples: June 2, 1804, or 1804 - 1849, or June 1804 - August 1949.

Using Colonial English Variant Spellings to Search Old Newspapers

  • Many of the newspapers in the historical newspaper archives are very old, and the searches must deal with Colonial English.
  • The long "s" character was almost identical to the "f" in many texts.
    • When searching old newspaper articles on words containing the letter "s," use the "?" wildcard in place of the "s."
    • Note: this can occur whether it is the first letter, a letter within a word, or at the end of a word.
    • The double "s" is in words like Massachusetts needs to be replaced with two wildcards in historical newspaper searches.

Examples of Searching for Old Newspaper Articles with Colonial English

Modern Spelling Colonial Spellings Suggested Search
Spanish Spanifh Spani?h, ?pani?h
Boston Bofton Bo?ton
Massachusetts Maffachufetts Ma??achu?ett?
  • In addition, type was set by hand for early American newspapers and printers did not always have enough pieces of type to include all of the letters in a word. This resulted in letters being omitted, or sometimes letters that looked similar were used as substitutions.
  • Much of this historic newspaper material did not use standard spellings.
  • Examples of some conventions that were common in old newspapers:
    • Use of name variants - Smith or Smythe
    • Use of "e" in word endings - Chesapeake or Chesapeak
    • Dropping the letter "h" - Philadelphia or Philadelpia
  • Examples of irregular vowel usage:
    • clerk - cleark
    • color - colour
    • Delaware - Deleware
    • Elijah - Elifha
    • Israel - Ifreal - Ifral
    • Jehovah - Javovah
  • Examples of letter e to word endings
    • Brown - Browne
    • Chesapeake - Chefopeak or Chefopeake
    • Clark - Clarke
    • highways - highwayes
  • Examples of interchanging use of the letters "i" and "y"
    • adjoining - adjoyning
    • Pennsylvania - Pensilvania or Penfilvania
    • rails - rayls

Colonial Newspaper Search Notes

  • If in doubt, use wildcards such as the question mark "?" or the asterisk "*" in your colonial newspaper search.
  • A question mark is a single-character wildcard and an asterisk multi-character (allows for up to 5 characters) wildcard.