Elections decided by 10 votes or fewer
Every year, Ballotpedia covers thousands of elections at all levels of government—from the halls of Congress down to school boards in all parts of the country. While there are plenty of elections where a candidate wins big, there are also several that are decided by a dozen or fewer votes. This page analyzes trends in elections decided by 10 or fewer votes since 2018.
Since 2018, there were 626 elections decided by 10 or fewer votes. Of those 626 elections, 372 were determined by fewer than five votes, including 91 decided by a single vote. Members of the Democratic Party won 128 elections decided by 10 or fewer votes, while Republicans won 155, and nonpartisan or minor party candidates won 343. Among these elections, the one decided with the fewest total votes was a 2022 election for Wilson Elementary School District in Arizona (14).[1] Maria Felix beat incumbent Hector Banda Lopez eight votes to six.
On this page, you will find a list of every election decided by 10 or fewer votes since 2024, along with a breakdown by state, vote margin, and political party.
This page is updated annually. It was last updated in September 2024.
Overview
The chart below shows how many of the 626 elections were decided by each vote margin and the winners by political party.
See also
- Elections
- Elections calendar
- Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
- Incumbents who won primaries by five percentage points or fewer or with a plurality, 2024
Footnotes
- ↑ This does not include three elections in New Hampshire and one in Vermont decided with fewer total votes. These elections involved candidates of one party running unopposed in the primary of another party because of the ability to file to run with multiple parties in those states.