Elections are a fundamental aspect of any democratic society, allowing citizens to choose their leaders and shape the direction of their country. From local elections to national elections, the process of voting and selecting representatives is a complex and multifaceted endeavor. The electoral process can be different from one country to another, and it's important to understand the rules and procedures in each country. However, not everyone is aware of the interesting trivia and facts surrounding elections. Here are a few examples of election trivia questions that might test your knowledge:
- Who were the first two presidential candidates in the United States?
- What is the name of the process of selecting a presidential nominee before an election?
- What is the name of the act that guarantees voting rights to all adult citizens in the United States?
- What is the name of the process of casting and counting votes in an election?
- What is the minimum age for a person to vote in the United States?
These are just a few examples of the many fascinating facts and trivia related to elections. Whether you're a student of political science or just someone who is curious about how elections work, these questions can be a fun and interesting way to learn more about the electoral process.
131 Election Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated for 2024)
- The 2000 U.S. presidential election was officially decided by a controversial Supreme Court decision following a recount of votes in what state? The recount determined that George W. Bush had defeated Al Gore in that state by a mere 537 votes.
Answer: Florida
- The public comment "I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach" is thought to be a major reason that Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost his 2021 bid to be re-elected as governor of what state?
Answer: Virginia
- In 2004, allegations of fraud against Viktor Yanukovych, the purported winner of a presidential election, led to the Orange Revolution in what country?
Answer: Ukraine
- Double the last letter in the name of a strong cotton fabric to get what verb that means going through a district to solicit votes in person?
Answer: Canvass
- The title character befriends transfer student Pedro and helps Pedro run for class president against popular girl Summer, in what 2004 comedy film?
Answer: Napoleon Dynamite
- David Palmer successfully won a presidential election after Jack Bauer foiled an assassination attempt on him during his campaign, in what Fox drama series?
Answer: 24
- On May 3, 2022, incumbent Todd Young was the only Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate primary election in which state?
Answer: Indiana
- Since 1965, residents of Gambia have been casting their votes for president by dropping a small object into a drum. What’s the name of the tiny glass globes they use instead of paper ballots?
Answer: Marbles
- _____ County v. Holder, a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision, struck down the preclearance provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The name of what Alabama county, by which the decision is commonly known, fills in the blank?
Answer: Shelby
- Which Republican president was the most recent to win Hamilton County, Ohio, home of Cincinnati, in 2004?
Answer: George W. Bush
- Days after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who continued to lead his party after stepping down, the Liberal Democratic Party was victorious in July 2022 elections in what country?
Answer: Japan
- In response to a question about pay equity during a 2012 presidential debate, Mitt Romney stated that when filling his cabinet as governor of Massachusetts, women's political group MassGAP sent him nearly 200 résumés of female candidates, which Romney clumsily described with what four-word phrase?
Answer: "Binders full of women"
- In 2017, US President Donald Trump fired what then head of the FBI? One of the reasons Trump gave was this director’s handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails during the 2016 election.
Answer: James Comey
- The most common method used in U.S. elections is often abbreviated "FPTP," where the acronym stands for what four word phrase?
Answer: First past the post
- Just like the sports analytics of "Moneyball," Nate Silver uses sabermetrics to balance political polling on what website named for the number of electors in the U.S. Electoral College?
Answer: FiveThirtyEight
- In 2020, Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender state senator in American history when she was elected to the legislature of what second-smallest state?
Answer: Delaware
- Former President Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party in 1912 after he lost the Republican presidential nomination to his former protégé William Howard Taft. The new party was nicknamed after an animal because Roosevelt boasted that he felt "strong as a ______ ______". What animal fills in the blanks?
Answer: Bull Moose
- In the 2000 and 2004 elections, who was the campaign manager and senior advisor for George W. Bush?
Answer: Karl Rove
- The election of 1912 was the first one to feature the 48 contiguous states, thanks to Arizona and New Mexico joining the union prior to the election. Both of those states went to which eventual winner?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson
- Who was chief justice of the Supreme Court at the time the controversial Supreme Court decision "Bush v. Gore," was handed down on December 12, 2000?
Answer: William Rehnquist
- What’s blowing up, Doc? Exploding cigars, pianos, and watermelons are some of the unorthodox tactics used in a cartoon pitting Yosemite Sam in a mayoral race against what wascal?
Answer: Bugs Bunny
- What Kentucky-born presidential candidate swung his support to John Quincy Adams after finishing fourth in the 1824 election, helping Adams to prevail in a House of Representatives vote?
Answer: Henry Clay
- The 2008 Presidential election featured the major party tickets of Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin. It also featured a few independent candidates, including which man and consumer advocate, who ran for President in 1996, 2000 and 2004 under the Green and Reform party lines?
Answer: Ralph Nader
- Named after a 1950 blues song by Muddy Waters and a 1965 Bob Dylan hit, what magazine's list of “The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time” includes these top three selections: Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles?
Answer: Rolling Stone
- Aunt Viv's husband, Uncle Phil, runs for Superior Court Judge against his former law school mentor in an episode of what 1990s sitcom?
Answer: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
- "Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow" was a Super PAC founded by what US comedian who raised awareness of Super PACs in his late-night television program during 2012?
Answer: Stephen Colbert
- What Democratic president won the 1964 election by a massive 486-52 electoral vote margin in the last election where the western states of Idaho, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma voted Democrat?
Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson
- The 1948 United States presidential election ended with the winner holding a newspaper with what erroneous three word headline? The headline implied the then Governor of New York had in fact won against a former vice president who assumed office when his predecessor died.
Answer: Dewey Defeats Truman
- What Eastern European country has been under the repressive leadership of Alexander Lukashenko since its departure from the Soviet Union in 1994? They made headlines for hijacking the plane of a dissident journalist, Roman Protasevich, in mid-air.
Answer: Belarus
- In the 2020 general election, what state governed by Doug Ducey voted to legalize recreational marijuana in a ballot proposition known as the Smart and Safe Act?
Answer: Arizona
- Celebrated two days after Election Day, Return Day unites party leaders to ceremonially bury what kind of tool?
Answer: Hatchet
- Led by Adam Price, Plaid Cymru is a political party committed to gaining independence for which UK member country?
Answer: Wales
- Josh Mandel and J.D. Vance were among the seven Republican candidates in the U.S. Senate primary race on May 3, 2022 in what U.S. state?
Answer: Ohio
- In the 1984 US Democratic Primary, Walter Mondale criticized the depth of Gary Hart’s “New Ideas” platform by citing what Wendy’s slogan? Famously stated by Clara Peller in many commercials, it was a reference to how other burger chains don’t use enough meat.
Answer: Where's the beef?
- October 2021 elections saw the Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, lose 23 seats but maintain its relative majority status in what country?
Answer: Japan
- The third and final of the "Reconstruction Amendments" in the U.S. prohibited government from denying citizens the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." What number amendment is this overall in the U.S.?
Answer: 15
- Requiring 60 votes to proceed, what "C" word means a Senate procedure that limits further consideration of a pending proposal to 30 hours to avoid filibuster?
Answer: Cloture
- Instant-runoff voting and single transferable vote are the two specific types of a more general voting system that is used in various jurisdictions in the United States. As of November 1, 2020, Maine is the only U.S. state which uses this voting system in all state primary, congressional, and presidential elections. What is the name of this system?
Answer: Ranked-choice voting
- In 1984, Republican President Ronald Reagan defeated Democrat Walter Mondale by taking 49 states in the electoral college. In 1972, Richard Nixon also took 49 states, losing only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, against this Democratic opponent.
Answer: George McGovern
- In 1997, David Wolf became the first American to vote from where? A Texas state law enabled him to do so.
Answer: Space
- What was the unsurprising surname of the 1915-born politician who became the first mayor of DC in more than a century after winning the District's 1974 mayoral election?
Answer: Walter Washington
- This running mate of John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential election hailed from what state, which John Kerry failed to carry in the electoral college?
Answer: North Carolina
- Adventurer Phileas Fogg is shocked by the kerfuffle over a San Francisco election for a justice of the peace that he encounters on his global travels in what Jules Verne novel?
Answer: Around the World in Eighty Days
- On November 1, Israeli voters went to the polls for the fifth time in four years to elect members of what legislative body?
Answer: Knesset
- What candidate, running on the American Independent Party ticket in 1968, was the last candidate in a U.S. presidential election to carry a state's electoral votes?
Answer: George Wallace
- In 2016, General Mills's Monster Cereals held a mock election, with what cocoa-flavored cereal beating out Boo Berry and Franken Berry to win the most votes?
Answer: Count Chocula
- Eric Adams, who won the Democratic primary election for the NYC mayoral race, is currently the president of what most-populous NYC borough?
Answer: Brooklyn
- In the 1952 US elections, the Republican party campaigned they would remove gay people from the government, or as they called them, “L______ Lads”, leading some historians to call this era the “L______ Scare.” Name this “L” color and flowering plant, sometimes used as an essential oil.
Answer: Lavender
- In January 2022, 80-year-old Sergio Mattarella was elected to serve a second seven-year term as president of what EU nation?
Answer: Italy
- All the way back in 1800, the results of the U.S. presidential election was decided by a contingent election in the outgoing House of Representatives. What man ultimately won this election?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson
- The American Anti-Corruption Act, or AACA, is legislation proposed in 2011 to curb the influence of money in politics by what former head of US Federal Election Commission and counsel to John McCain? His last name is the same as the harsh banker in “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Answer: Trevor Potter
- Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia (elected in 2015) and Alexander Van der Bellen of Austria (elected in 2016) are Europe's first heads of states representing parties with what colorful name?
Answer: Green Party
- In the 1988 Vice Presidential debate, what VP candidate of Michael Dukakis infamously said "Senator, I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy"?
Answer: Lloyd Bentsen
- The 24th Amendment prohibited them. Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections ruled them unconstitutional. What two-word type of payment are we talking about?
Answer: Poll tax
- What senator, first elected in the 1974 senatorial elections, is the only Democrat to ever be a Senator from Vermont?
Answer: Patrick Leahy
- The close results of the 1948 election created the unusual scenario in which Harry Truman won the election, but the Chicago Tribune speculated that what Republican governor of New York was victorious? A celebratory Truman held up this headline while celebrating his win.
Answer: Thomas Dewey
- Following the country's famous 1940s coup d'état, Costa Rica wrote and passed a new Constitution, leading to the nation's first democratic elections under the new Constitution in what year?
Answer: 1953
- The 1880 U.S. presidential election had the smallest popular vote margin in the nation's history with only 0.11% of voters separating separating James Garfield and Winfield Hancock. How many votes did this razor-thin margin represent?
Answer: 1898
- Originally published anonymously, what 1996 novel by Joe Klein is a fictionalized version of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign to win the presidential election?
Answer: Primary Colors
- In January 2021, what state held runoff elections to fill both of its U.S. Senate seats, with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock winning?
Answer: Georgia
- What New Mexico county voted for the winner of every US presidential election from 1952 through 2016, the longest active of any county for years, but had its streak broken in 2020?
Answer: Valencia
- The expression "hanging chad" gained notoriety during the 2000 U.S. presidential election. "Hanging chads" were the focus in a recount in which state?
Answer: Florida
- Who is the only U.S. president to have been elected unanimously, receiving every electoral vote available to him?
Answer: George Washington (twice!)
- A major factor in making the 2000 US Presidential Election so close, especially in Florida, was the Green Party campaign of what man, who rose to fame in the 1960s as a consumer advocate, author of “Unsafe At Any Speed?”
Answer: Ralph Nader
- In the 1948 US Presidential election, Strom Thurmond won four southern states running under a party whose members were known as ______crats. Fill in the blank, a common nickname for the American South, perhaps derived from one of the surveyors of the Mason-Dixon line.
Answer: Dixie
- Who was the American industrialist that made his millions in the 1800s from financing gas works before attempting four(!) times to essentially purchase a United States Senate seat in the state of Delaware? His battle with Henry du Pont for control of Delaware politics led in part to the Seventeenth Amendment in the US which enabled direct election of Senators.
Answer: J. Edward Addicks
- The 2003 California gubernatorial recall election resulted in the replacement of Gray Davis with what star of "The Terminator" and "Total Recall?"
Answer: Arnold Schwarzenegger
- What soldier and statesman, who served as vice president under James Madison, had previously finished 3rd in the 1792 US Presidential Election, losing to George Washington? His first and last name are the same as the lead singer of Parliament Funkadelic.
Answer: George Clinton
- President Joe Biden called what U.S. state's Election Integrity Act, which was signed into law in March 2021, "Jim Crow in the 21st century?"
Answer: Georgia
- What “S” Irish political scientist worked for Dublin’s Economic and Social Research Institute, and regularly appeared on Irish television to analyze elections?
Answer: Richard Sinnott
- According to Nielsen ratings, the most-watched vice presidential debate in history was a face-off between Joe Biden and which running mate of John McCain?
Answer: Sarah Palin
- "I Like Ike" was a popular campaign slogan in 1952 for what ultimately successful candidate for the U.S. Presidency?
Answer: Eisenhower
- In the 1888 US presidential election, Benjamin Harrison beat Grover Cleveland despite losing the popular vote, in large part thanks to winning two swing states, New York and what Hoosier state?
Answer: Indiana
- If you can’t go to your local polling place on election day, which type of mail-in ballot can you request to make sure you can still cast your vote? (Hint: You can sometimes use them to vote early, too)
Answer: Absentee
- On June 6, 2022, what UK Prime Minister survived a vote of no confidence by his fellow Conservative party lawmakers, although his position was weakened by the vote?
Answer: Boris Johnson
- During local elections, citizens of a community can vote on which issue that starts with B and concerns the money to be used to fund improvement projects like fixing roads?
Answer: Bonds
- Which “ology” that starts with P refers to the study of election statistics mostly with the goal of predicting future outcomes?
Answer: Psephology
- A contingent election, in which no candidate reaches a majority of election and the president is decided by a special vote in the House, hasn't occurred in the U.S. since 1837. But it did occur in what HBO show in 2016, resulting in a reelection loss for Selina Meyer?
Answer: Veep
- The release of white smoke, or fumata blanca, indicates that a new person has been elected by ballot to what position?
Answer: Pope
- Statewide elections in Maine and Alaska use RCV, an alternative voting system in effect in over fifty jurisdictions nationwide. What does RCV stand for?
Answer: Ranked-Choice Voting
- The term ______ majority means that a candidate has won more than half (50%) of all votes cast in an election.
Answer: Absolute
- Name either of the two manufacturers of voting machines that filed defamation suits against Trump representatives Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Answer: Dominion, Smartmatic
- On January 8, 2023, supporters of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, upset at his defeat in the 2022 election, rioted and forced their way into the presidential palace of what South American nation?
Answer: Brazil
- The film Election brought voter fraud to the big screen when it depicted a teacher, played by Matthew Broderick, disposing of votes for what character, played by Reese Witherspoon?
Answer: Tracy Flick
- What party won an overwhelming 252 out of 400 seats in South Africa's 1994 elections, the first to be held since a ban on the party was lifted?
Answer: African National Congress
- Which political theory suggests that a unified and usually wealthy minority holds the power in society and, therefore, in elections?
Answer: Elite theory
- They’d have to wait until 1920 in the USA and 1971 in Switzerland! Thanks to the work of Kate Sheppard, among others, New Zealand was the first country in the world to give votes in national elections to what group of people?
Answer: Women
- What is the name of the far-right party of Marine Le Pen, who lost the French presidential runoff election to Emmanuel Macron in April 2022?
Answer: National Rally
- Al Gore sought the Democratic nomination for US President in 1988 as the junior senator from which state?
Answer: Tennessee
- The Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the U.S., was passed more than 40 shameful years after the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled explicitly against early women suffragettes. Who was president when the Nineteenth Amendment passed?
Answer: Woodrow Wilson
- What is the word commonly found during election time which evolved from Latin words for "upon" and "lean on" or "lie down"? In electoral matters, the word is often simply abbreviated with the lower case letter "i".
Answer: Incumbent
- The contested 1876 election of which president marked the end of Reconstruction due to the backroom Compromise of 1877, which ensured which president's election and averted a constitutional crisis?
Answer: Rutherford B Hayes
- What is the name of Justin Trudeau's progressive political party, which lost its absolute majority in the Canadian Parliament in the 2019 federal election?
Answer: Liberal Party
- NOVEMBER 7th, 2023 – I guess we’ll find out if the gubernatorial grass is still blue! Governor Andy Beshear, an incumbent Democratic governor, will run for reelection in which U.S. state where Trump defeated Biden by a 25.9% margin in the 2020 Presidential election?
Answer: Kentucky
- The title of what 2012 novel by J.K. Rowling, her first after the Harry Potter series, refers to a suddenly empty seat in a small British town's government that needs to be filled with an election?
Answer: The Casual Vacancy
- What Midwestern city was the home of the Studebaker car manufacturer? This city was also featured in the 2019 news cycle due to its presidential hopeful "Mayor Pete."
Answer: South Bend, Indiana
- The Independence Party has won the largest number of seats in the Althingi every election but one since the party's creation in 1929. The Althingi is the oldest parliamentary body in the world, having been founded in 930 CE in what European country?
Answer: Iceland
- Kelly Loeffler lost her run-off election and her US Senate seat in Georgia after a vote in 2021. Emblematic of her momentum, members of what Atlanta WNBA franchise, which she co-owned at the time, spoke out against her campaign? The moment felt very unreal.
Answer: Atlanta Dream
- What does the "H" stand for in H. Ross Perot, who ran unsuccessfully for President in 1992 and again in 1996 under third-party lines?
Answer: Henry
- A landmark moment in the history of electronic voting in U.S. elections was when the Reform Party used "I-Voting" (internet voting) to select their presidential candidate in 1996. Unsurprisingly, they selected what man who had founded the party one year prior?
Answer: Ross Perot
- The first successful recall election in the United States was the 1911 recall of Hiram Gill from his position as the mayor of what western city?
Answer: Seattle, Washington
- Then-Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader Victor Ponta was accused of rigging a 2014 election in his favor in what southeastern European country?
Answer: Romania
- What country held its first democratic elections on January 30, 2005?
Answer: Iraq
- What Irish nationalist party caused shockwaves in the U.K. in 2022, when it captured the largest number of seats in the North Ireland Assembly for the first time ever?
Answer: Sinn Fein
- Andrew Jackson won the first U.S. presidential election in which more than one million votes were cast. Who won the first election in which more than one HUNDRED million votes were cast?
Answer: Bill Clinton
- While his mom is campaigning for a second term as President, America's First Son falls in love with a Prince of England in what 2019 novel by Casey McQuiston?
Answer: Red, White, & Royal Blue
- Tiny Dixville Notch is known for being the first town in the United States to announce the winner of U.S. presidential elections. In what state is Dixville Notch located?
Answer: New Hampshire
- The 1976 Republican National Convention saw the party’s presidential and vice presidential nomination of Gerald Ford and what Kansas senator for the year’s U.S. Presidential election?
Answer: Bob Dole
- In the 1912 election, which presidential incumbent became the only major party (Democrat or Republican) candidate in US in the 20th century to finish third in both the electoral vote and popular vote?
Answer: Taft
- In what decade did the 23rd amendment to the U.S. Constitution grant residents of Washington DC electoral college representation in presidential elections?
Answer: 1960s
- In 1988, George H.W. Bush became the first sitting Vice President to be elected President, winning 426 electoral votes, since which Vice President in 1836?
Answer: Martin Van Buren
- Although George Washington was unanimously elected President in the first ever election of 1788-89, what state was not part of the electoral college for that election, since it did not establish how to choose its electors for the Electoral College by the deadline of January 7, 1789?
Answer: New York
- In presidential elections, Washington DC receives three electoral votes due to what numbered constitutional amendment, ratified in 1961?
Answer: Twenty-third
- What "T" 19th century governor of New York narrowly lost to Rutherford B. Hayes in the contested 1876 presidential election? A Democrat, it is believed his loss was negotiated in exchange for the end of Southern Reconstruction.
Answer: Samuel Tilden
- What is the surname of the 1972 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics whose impossibility theorem states that community-wide ranked preferences cannot be determined by converting individuals’ preferences from a fair ranked-voting electoral system?
Answer: Arrow
- What name does Canada give to its 338 electoral districts, each one of which elects a member of parliament to the country's House of Commons?
Answer: Riding
- Which later-assassinated president was the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to be elected to the presidency?
Answer: James Garfield
- In 2020, what North Carolina incumbent senator defeated challenger Cal Cunningham in the most expensive senate election in history up to that point?
Answer: Thom Tillis
- On December 22, 2021, what African nation announced it would be unable to meet its December 24 target for national elections, causing the UN to express concern on behalf of its 2.8 million registered voters?
Answer: Libya
- Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting rights activist who was a key local organizer what two-word event in Mississippi during 1964? The event had the goal of increasing the share of African Americans in Mississippi that were registered to vote.
Answer: Freedom Summer
- Anthony Downs' theory of which groups has them habitually moving toward the middle to win elections?
Answer: Political Parties
- In what year did a Constitutional Amendment give residents of the District of Columbia electoral votes in presidential elections? We'll accept responses that are within five years of the correct answer,
Answer: 1961 (1956 - 1966 accepted)
- The U.S. has its elections on Tuesdays and the U.K. has its on Thursdays, but in most of Europe, South America, and Central America, elections are almost always held on what day of the week?
Answer: Sunday
- Which president one the only election in United States history in which the candidate with the most electoral votes actually lost?
Answer: John Quincy Adams
- The 1892 Presidential election saw incumbent Republican President Benjamin Harrison face off against Democrat Grover Cleveland, and James P. Weaver, who was a member of what political party?
Answer: Populist
- Which American president had such distinct blue eyes and such a cold, stone-faced demeanor that he was popularly known as the "human iceberg?" This man served one term as a US Senator from Indiana and one term as US President.
Answer: Benjamin Harrison
- In parliamentary systems, what is a politician said to cross if they formally change their affiliation to a second party after being elected as a member of a first party?
Answer: The floor
- In 2017, Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France as a candidate from what newly-created party, whose name means "Forward?"
Answer: En Marche
- What was the most recent US Presidential election in which the city of Richmond voted primarily for the Republican candidate?
Answer: 1972
- What right-wing populist party, often represented in blue on electoral maps, took 83 seats in the Bundestag in the 2021 elections, making it Germany's largest opposition party?
Answer: AfD
- On April 11, 2021, incumbent Patrice Talon was re-elected as the president of what French-speaking West African nation?
Answer: Benin
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About the Author
Eli Robinson is the Chief Trivia Officer at Water Cooler Trivia. He was once in a Bruce Springsteen cover band called F Street Band.
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