The New York Times Launches ‘Times Voter Trends’: A New Way of Understanding the Election

The New York Times is introducing a new way to understand the American electorate. Times Voter Trends, a new data journalism initiative, will break down how different demographic groups voted in races and how they shifted from previous elections.

This project will present more detailed data information to understand how people are voting by race, gender, education, age and more, delivered in a form that allows audiences to explore this data as they never have before. Times Voter Trends is possible because of multiyear investments in data journalism, precinct-level data analysis and The New York Times/Siena Poll. By combining pre-election polling, live precinct returns, voter file data and estimates from "the Needle," The Times will offer a living demographic portrait of the American electorate months before this type of analysis is usually available.

"This is the natural culmination of the election data journalism we already create - specifically, The Times/Siena Poll, the Needle, our election-night results presentation and the expansive data collection operation powering it all," said Matthew Ericson, assistant managing editor. "Times Voter Trends gives readers a more tangible understanding of what happened at the ballot box, letting them dive deep into the data and understand the shifts in voting patterns since the last election."

To better evaluate how the electorate changes in this year's midterm election, The Times is publishing findings from the 2020 and 2024 presidential races as a benchmark. Readers can expect the 2026 data to publish the morning after Election Day.

For a limited time, all midterm elections coverage is free in The New York Times app. Download the app here.