In 2020, over 3 million votes were “wasted” on Democratic candidates who had already withdrawn from the race, representing over 8% of total votes. In 2016 and 2024, hundreds of thousands of votes were wasted in the Republican primaries.
Wasted votes occur when a candidate’s name appears on the ballot after they have dropped out of the race. Early and mail-in voters often fill out ballots a week or more ahead of Election Day, before they know which candidates will be active when their state holds its primary.
Early voting isn’t the problem; our “choose one” voting method is to blame for wasted votes. Ranked choice voting (RCV) ensures every vote is counted, and every voice is heard when choosing presidential nominees. It empowers voters by allowing them to rank a series of backup choices: If their favorite candidate has dropped out, their ballots are still valid.
The states that used RCV for their 2020 Democratic presidential primaries (Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, and Wyoming) had no wasted votes. In addition, Nevada Democrats used RCV for early voters, virtually eliminating wasted votes there. That’s a huge contrast with states like Washington and Arizona, where over a fifth of all votes were wasted. In 2024, Virgin Islands Republicans used RCV in their primary to virtually eliminate wasted votes as well.
The below resource shows wasted votes in key states’ presidential primaries from 2016 to 2024. You can find more information in our 2016, 2020, and 2024 wasted votes trackers.