Editing Rhode Island (section)

==Elections==
{{further|Politics of Rhode Island|Political party strength in Rhode Island}}
[[File:Rhode Island Presidential Election Results 2024.svg|left|thumb|County results of the 2024 Presidential election. Kamala Harris (D) won every county, though she won Kent County by a narrow margin of 1.9%]]

{{PresHead|place=Rhode Island|whig=yes|source=<ref>{{cite web|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/compare.php?year=2008&fips=44&f=1&off=0&elect=0&type=state|title=Presidential General Election Results Comparison – Rhode Island|publisher=US Election Atlas|access-date=January 4, 2023|author=Leip, David}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|214,406|285,156|13,824|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|199,922|307,486|10,349|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|180,543|252,525|31,076|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|157,204|279,677|9,168|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|165,391|296,571|9,804|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|169,046|259,760|8,328|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|130,555|249,508|29,049|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|104,683|233,050|52,551|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|131,601|213,299|108,578|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|177,761|225,123|1,736|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|212,080|197,106|1,306|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|154,793|198,342|62,937|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|181,249|227,636|2,285|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|220,383|194,645|780|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1968|Democratic|122,359|246,518|16,123|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|74,615|315,463|13|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|147,502|258,032|1|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|225,819|161,970|2|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|210,935|203,293|270|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|135,787|188,736|3,179|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|123,487|175,356|433|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|138,653|182,182|313|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|125,031|165,238|20,909|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|115,266|146,604|4,300|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|117,522|118,973|699|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|125,286|76,606|8,223|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|107,463|55,062|5,456|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|44,858|40,394|2,564|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|27,703|30,412|19,779|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|43,942|24,706|3,669|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|41,605|24,839|2,212|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|33,784|19,812|2,952|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|37,437|14,459|2,889|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1892|Republican|26,975|24,336|1,885|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1888|Republican|21,969|17,530|1,276|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1884|Republican|19,030|12,391|1,350|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1880|Republican|18,195|10,779|261|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1876|Republican|15,787|10,712|128|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1872|Republican|13,665|5,329|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1868|Republican|12,993|6,548|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1864|Republican|13,962|8,470|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1860|Republican|12,244|7,707|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1856|Republican|11,467|6,680|1,675|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1852|Democratic|7,626|8,735|644|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1848|Whig|6,779|3,646|730|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1844|Whig|7,322|4,867|107|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1840|Whig|5,278|3,301|42|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1836|Democratic|2,710|2,964|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1832|Whig|2,810|2,126|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresRow|1828|Whig|2,754|821|0|Rhode Island}}
{{PresFoot|1824|Whig|2,145|0|200|Rhode Island}}

Rhode Island's population barely crosses the threshold beyond the minimum of three for additional votes in both the federal [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] and [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]]; it is well represented relative to its population, with the [[List of U.S. states by population|eighth-highest]] number of electoral votes and [[List of U.S. states by population|second-highest]] number of House Representatives per resident. Based on its area, Rhode Island has the highest density of electoral votes of any state.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.270towin.com/states/New_Jersey |title=New Jersey Presidential Election Voting History |publisher=270towin.com |access-date=January 26, 2013 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117053423/http://www.270towin.com/states/New_Jersey |url-status=live }}</ref>

Federally, Rhode Island is a reliably Democratic state during presidential elections, usually supporting the Democratic presidential nominee. The state voted for the Republican presidential candidate until [[1908 United States presidential election|1908]]. Since then, it has voted for the Republican nominee for president seven times, and the Democratic nominee 17 times. The last 16 presidential elections in Rhode Island have resulted in the Democratic Party winning the Ocean State's Electoral College votes 12 times. In the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 presidential election]], Rhode Island was one of six states to vote against [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Ronald Reagan]]. Reagan was the last Republican to win any of the state's counties in a Presidential election until Donald Trump won Kent County in 2016. In 1988, [[George H. W. Bush]] won over 40% of the state's popular vote, something no Republican has done since.

Rhode Island was the Democrats' leading state in 1960, 1964, 1968, 1988 and 2000, and second-best in 1968, 1972, 1996, and 2004. Rhode Island's most one-sided Presidential election result was in 1964, with over 80% of Rhode Island's votes going for [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. In 2004, Rhode Island gave [[John Kerry]] more than a 20-percentage-point margin of victory (the third-highest of any state), with 59.4% of its vote. All but three of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns voted for the Democratic candidate. The exceptions were East Greenwich, West Greenwich, and Scituate.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://web.mit.edu/cstewart/www/nationwide2004.xls |title=nationwide2004 |author=Stewart, Charles |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|access-date=August 28, 2007|archive-date=November 4, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104111948/http://web.mit.edu/cstewart/www/nationwide2004.xls|url-status=live}} taken from [http://web.mit.edu/cstewart/www/election2004.html web.mit.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817210744/http://web.mit.edu/cstewart/www/election2004.html |date=August 17, 2007 }}</ref> In 2008, Rhode Island gave [[Barack Obama]] a 28-percentage-point margin of victory (the third-highest of any state), with 63% of its vote. All but one of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns voted for the Democratic candidate (the exception being Scituate).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/county/#RIP00p1 |title=CNN Election Results by town in Rhode Island |access-date=January 6, 2009 |archive-date=January 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090118011517/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/county/#RIP00p1 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a 2020 study, Rhode Island was ranked as the 19th easiest state for citizens to vote in.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=J. Pomante II |first1=Michael |last2=Li |first2=Quan |title=Cost of Voting in the American States: 2020 |journal=Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy |date=15 Dec 2020 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=503–509 |doi=10.1089/elj.2020.0666 |s2cid=225139517 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

{| class=wikitable
! colspan = 6 | Party registration as of November 2024<ref>{{cite web |url=https://datahub.sos.ri.gov/RegisteredVoter.aspx |title=Rhode Island Voter Registration |publisher=Rhode Island Department of State |access-date=March 3, 2023 |archive-date=August 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814080920/https://datahub.sos.ri.gov/RegisteredVoter.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>

|-
! colspan = 2 | Party
! Total voters
! Percentage

|-
| {{party color cell|Independent politician}}
| [[Independent voter|Unaffiliated]]
| align=center | 351,893
| align=center | 48.05%

|-
| {{party color cell|Democratic Party (US)}}
| [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| align=center | 275,116
| align=center | 37.57%

|-
| {{party color cell|Republican Party (US)}}
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| align=center | 104,655
| align=center | 14.29%

|-
! colspan = 2 | Total
! align=center | 732,308
! align=center | 100.00%
|}