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As of 2020, Georgia has taken part in every presidential election contested in the United States, apart from the 1864 election, when Georgia was a member of the Confederacy. In these 58 elections, Georgia has voted for the winning candidate 34 times, giving a success rate of 59 percent. As with most southern states, Georgia has traditionally voted for the more conservative candidate of the major parties; primarily voting Democrat in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, before switching to the Republican Party in the 1960s (although it was considered a swing state in the 1970s and 1980s). Major party candidates have won the popular vote in Georgia in every elections, except in 1968 when George Wallace of the American Independent Party carried the state. Georgia has voted for the Democratic nominee 34 times, including every possible election from 1852 until 1960, and the Republican nominee on ten occasions, including all elections from 1996 to 2016. In the 2020 election, however, Georgia proved to have one of the closest counts nationwide, with Democratic nominee Joe Biden eventually flipping the state by a 0.2 percent margin after several recounts.

Exceptions

As previously mentioned, Georgia has predominantly voted Republican since the 1960s, however it did vote for the Democratic nominee in both the 1976 and 1980 elections. In these elections, Georgia native Jimmy Carter carried his home state with over two thirds of the vote in 1976, and defeated Republican favorite Ronald Reagan by 15 percent in 1980. As of 2020, Jimmy Carter is the only Georgia native to have ascended to the presidency, while John C. Frémont, who was the Republican nominee in 1856, is the only other major party nominee to have been born in Georgia. The only other times where Georgia voted Democrat since the 1960s were in 1992, where Bill Clinton defeated the incumbent President George H. W. Bush by just 0.6 percent of the popular vote (this was the closest result of any state in this election) and, as previously mentioned, in 2020 (which, again, was the closest result of any state in this election, along with Arizona). The swing in 2020 has been attributed to increased voter registration and turnout among urban and suburban voters, as a result of Democratic grassroots organizations; as well as the unpopularity of restrictive healthcare policies implemented by the Republican administration within the state.

Electoral votes

Georgia's allocation of electoral votes has generally increased over the past 230 years, with some fluctuation. It has grown from just four votes in the 1800 election, to sixteen votes in 2012; along with Michigan, this is the eighth-highest allocation in the country, contributing to Georgia's position as one of the most influential states in the 2020 election.