Thirty-four elections nationwide were decided by 10 votes or fewer between Sept. 2024 and Sept. 2025. Democrats won 11 of these elections, Republicans won five, and nonpartisan or minor party candidates won 18. Twenty-two of those were decided by 5 votes or fewer.

This year, the race decided by 10 or fewer votes with the most votes cast was for Colorado House of Representatives District 16. Rebecca Keltie (R) defeated Stephanie Vigil (D) by three votes with 41,279 total votes cast. The race with the fewest votes cast was the Constitution Party primary for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District, where Mark Hackett defeated Michael Chandler by three votes out of 13 cast.

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.

Since 2018, there were 660 elections decided by 10 or fewer votes. Of those 660 elections, 394 were determined by fewer than five votes, including 94 decided by a single vote. Members of the Democratic Party won 139 elections decided by 10 or fewer votes, while Republicans won 160, and nonpartisan or minor party candidates won 361. Among these elections, the one decided with the fewest total votes was the 2024 Constitution Party primary for South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District mentioned above (13).

The race with the most votes cast to be decided by fewer than 10 votes was the 2020 general election for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, when Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Rita Hart by six votes out of 393,922 total cast.

The state we’ve covered the most elections decided by fewer than 10 votes in is North Carolina, with 273. Ballotpedia covered every election in North Carolina in 2019, resulting in a larger number of close elections identified. All other figures in this report come from Ballotpedia’s regular coverage scope. The next highest states are New Hampshire (104), Vermont (37), and Texas and Utah (tied with 19 each).