2016 November General Election Turnout Rates

Last updated: 9/5/2018





A number of different turnout rates are presented here. The preferred turnout rates are those calculated with the voting-eligible population as the denominator. The voting-eligible population ( VEP ) represents an estimate of persons eligible to vote regardless of voter registration status in an election and is constructed by modifying the voting-age population ( VAP ), by components reported in the right-most columns (scroll right in the spreadsheet). Links to data sources are provided at the bottom of this page.





The preferred turnout rate numerator is the, which is all ballots election officials counted. Not all jurisdictions report total ballots counted, so a second-best numerator is, which in a presidential election year is the total votes for all presidential candidates including write-ins, and in a non-presidential election may be the vote for the highest turnout statewide office (typically governor) or if no statewide election was held, the sum of the congressional elections. Total ballots counted includes blank and otherwise invalid votes for the highest office. Some states may report a statistic they call total ballots cast, but is actually vote for highest office.Questions? Please see the FAQ