List of close election results

Table of close national and state elections

Year	Country / Region	Election	Race	Margin	Margin	Total votes cast for winner	Description
1985		Victorian Legislative Council	Nunawading	0%	0		Bob Ives tied with Rosemary Varty, but won the seat with a casting vote by the returning officer, who drew Ives' name from a hat. Adding to the drama, the seat decided control of the Legislative Council. Before Ives could take his seat, the result was subsequently voided by a Court of Disputed Returns on the grounds that 44 votes had been incorrectly excluded from the count, and the court ordered a by-election. Varty then won the by-election.
2011		Swiss federal	Ticino	0%	0	23979	Marco Romano and Monica Duca Widmer both had 23,979 votes. Initially, a computer program was used to draw lots and Widmer was declared the winner. Following complaints and appeals, the Federal Supreme Court ruled against the Canton's decision to use a computer program for the lottery and ordered new manual lottery. This was conducted on November 25 and Marco Romano emerged as the winner.
1994		Quebec general	Saint-Jean	0%	0	16536	Incumbent Liberal Michel Charbonneau tied with Parti Québécois candidate Roger Paquin. Consequently, a new vote was held 42 days later, which Paquin won by 532 votes.
1971		Virginia House of Delegates	District 19	0%	0	16410	The initial vote count had Republican William Moss ahead of Democrat Jim Burch by 1 vote for the sixth at-large seat in what was then a six-member district. But then a three-judge circuit court ruled that one of the ballots was "defaced" because the names of two candidates were crossed out with the notation "Do not desire to vote for these two". They did this even though the person who cast this vote testified that he intended to vote for Moss. Throwing out the ballot created a tied vote. The names of the two candidates were placed in sealed envelopes, and a blindfolded Elections Board chairman plucked one from a silver loving cup. Moss won. Two years later Moss would lose re-election by 0.03% of the vote.
2003		Quebec general	Champlain	0%	0	11852	PQ candidate Noëlla Champagne tied with Liberal Pierre Brouillette. Consequently, a new vote was held 36 days later, which Champagne won by 642 votes.
2017		Virginia House of Delegates	District 94	0%	0	11608	The initial vote count had incumbent Republican David Yancey ahead by 13 votes. After a canvas that included provisional ballots, Yancey's lead was cut to 10 votes. Following a recount, Yancey trailed Democratic challenger Shelly Simmonds by one vote out of 23,215 cast. After review by a three-judge panel appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court, a disputed ballot that had been excluded as an overvote was instead counted for Yancey and the race was certified as a tie with the candidates to draw lots to determine a winner. The drawing of lots was later postponed after Simmonds asked a state court to reconsider the dispute ballot. On January 4, 2018, the names of each candidate was placed inside a film canister, both canisters were placed in a bowl and one canister was drawn at random by State Board of Elections chairman James Alcorn. David Yancey won the draw and the seat, giving Republicans control of the House 51–49. Had Simonds won instead, a 50–50 split would have prompted a power sharing arrangement between the two major parties. In 2019, the two met in a rematch in a redrawn district and Simmonds won.
2010		Massachusetts House of Representatives	6th Worcester district	0%	0	6587	After Peter J. Durant was initially declared the winner by 1 vote, judge Richard T. Tucker ruled that one absentee ballot that was initially discarded was to be counted for Geraldo Alicea creating an exact tie. Six months later, a special election was held where Durant beat Alicea by 56 votes.
1963		Canadian federal	Pontiac—Témiscamingue	0%	0	6448	Paul Martineau and Paul-Oliva Goulet each received 6,448 votes in the Québec electoral district of Pontiac—Témiscamingue. Because the vote was tied, the returning officer cast his vote for Martineau.
2015		Mississippi House of Representatives	District 79	0%	0	4589	After Democrat incumbent Blaine Eaton tied Republican Mark Tullos, he won re-election by drawing the long straw. However, Tullos asked the State House to review the results, which they did, resulting in them throwing out some ballots for Eaton and seating Tullos. The vote was largely a party-line vote.
1988		Massachusetts Senate Democratic Primary	Plymouth District	0%	0	4543	George F. Buckley and Michael Creedon tied, but Creedon secured the nomination and later the seat.
1996		South Dakota House of Representatives	District 12	0%	0	4191	Four candidates Democrats John R. McIntyre and Dick Casey; and, Republicans Hal Wick and Judy Rost were contesting two seats. In the initial tally, they had respectively 4195, 3889, 4191, and 4687 votes. McIntyre was initially declared to have been elected by a four-vote margin. Wick petitioned for a recount in accordance with SDCL 12-21-12. The recount was conducted in the presence of representatives for both candidates. The results were certified on December 4, 1996, and showed that Wick had been elected by one vote: 4191, 3891, 4192, 4689 . The South Dakota Supreme Court examined several ballots and invalidated one vote for Wick. The House then voted, mostly along party lines, 46–20 to seat Wick. Remarkably, two years later, McIntyre and Wick would again tie.
1999		Nova Scotia general	Shelburne	0%	0		Progressive Conservative Cecil O'Donnell tied with Liberal Clifford Huskilson. The returning officer broke the tie by pulling Mr. O'Donnell's name from a box.
1886		United Kingdom general	Ashton-under-Lyne	0%	0	3049	Conservative incumbent John Edmund Wentworth Addison and Liberal challenger Alexander Butler Rowley were tied, 3,049–3,049. The Returning Officer James Walker broke the tie by casting a vote for Addison.
1978		Rhode Island Senate	Senatorial District 29	0%	0	4110	Both Russell and Flynn had exactly 4,110 votes in the general election. On Jan 9th, 1979, a special election was held where Flynn beat Russell 2,546–2,038.
1980		New Hampshire Senate Republican Primary	District 16	0%	0		Incumbent Frank Wageman found himself in a tied election after a hospitalization left him unable to vote in the election. Two numbered balls were placed in a black leather bottle, and the first one to roll out was the winner. Wageman's ball came out first and challenger Eleanor P. Podles demanded a recount that did not change the outcome. Podles won a rematch in 1982.
1994		Wyoming House of Representatives	District 21	0%	0	1941	Republican Randall Luthi and independent candidate Larry Call each received 1,941 votes in a state House race in northern Lincoln County. On live TV Secretary of State Kathy Karpan drew a ping pong ball with Luthi's name out of Governor Sullivan's rumpled cowboy hat.
2006		Alaska House of Representatives Democratic Primary	District 37	0%	0	1534	After a recount, a state Supreme Court challenge and wrangling over five disputed ballots the race was decided by a coin toss, using a special coin with a walrus on one side and the seal of Alaska on the other. Bryce Edgmon, the winner of the coin toss, went on to be Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives.
1887		Canadian federal	Joliette	0%	0	1532	Conservative Édouard Guilbault tied Liberal F. Neveu, but won the seat after the deciding vote was cast by the returning officer.
1896		Canadian federal	Assiniboia West	0%	0	1502	Conservative Nicholas Flood Davin tied independent John K. McInnes. The deciding vote in Davin's favor was cast by the returning officer after the two candidates tied.
2015		Prince Edward Island Provincial General	Vernon River-Stratford	0%	0	1173	On Declaration Day, Mary Ellen McInnis and Alan McIsaac had 1,172–1,174 votes. McInnis filed a petition for a judicial recount. Provincial Court Judge John Douglas discovered that a vote for Ms. McInnis was mistakenly put in the pile for Mr. McIsaac. The result of the recount was thus that they were tied 1,173–1,173. Pursuant to section 102 of the Election Act, the toss of a coin was completed by the Returning Officer. The results of the coin toss were in favour of Alan McIsaac.
1843		Indiana Senate	Switzerland County	0%	0	915	Daniel Kelso was initially up one vote on David Henry: 917–916. This election was extensively contested. It was alleged that two additional votes had been incorrectly given to Kelso, so that Henry had in fact won, 916–915. There was also one fraudulent vote found in favor of Henry, so the Senate Committee concluded that the correct vote was 915–915. But the Committee also found that the county provision in case of a tie was unconstitutional, and so they reported that no legal election had taken place in Switzerland County and neither Henry nor Kelso won. One book reports: Switzerland County was represented in the Senate in 1842 by Daniel Kelso; in 1843, 1844 and 1845, by David Henry. Also: "It has been repeated time and again that the annexation of Texas was carried in the United States Senate by one vote; that Edward A. Hannegan, then the United States Senator from Indiana was elected to the Senate by one vote, and that that one vote was given Hannegan by Daniel Kelso, then senator from Switzerland County, who was elected by one majority. "This is an error, for Kelso, when he voted for Hannegan as United States Senator, represented Switzerland County by virtue of a majority of about 150 voters of the county, over Samuel Howard at the August election of 1842. In 1843 David Henry was elected over Kelso by one majority. Kelso contested the election, and the Senate declared that neither was elected, and sent them back to the people for decision, and at the August election, 1844, Henry was elected by a small but decided majority."
1998		Massachusetts House of Representatives Republican Primary	13th Hampden	0%	0	876	Official election results showed that Matthew Ferri won the primary, garnering three more votes than opponent Rodney Fountain, but a judge later ruled that it was a tie. Fountain secured the nomination when he was chosen by a group of delegates from the Springfield ward committees and the East Long-meadow and Wilbraham town committees, but lost in the subsequent general.
1974		United States Senate	New Hampshire	0.000901%	2	110926	On election day, Louis Wyman won with a margin of just 355 votes out of more than 220,000. His opponent John A. Durkin then won the recount by 10 votes. After a second recount, Wyman won by just 2 votes. The Senate at first agreed to seat Wyman, who served the last 3 days of Noris Cotton's term, but began to deliberate again when the new Senate took office. When the Senate deadlocked for months, Durkin agreed to Wyman's proposal for a new election. The Senate declared the seat vacant and the governor appointed Cotton to hold the seat for six weeks until a special election on September 16. Durkin won the special by 27,000 votes.
1839		Massachusetts gubernatorial	Governor of Massachusetts	0.00098%	1		Marcus Morton and the incumbent Whig Edward Everett received 51,034–50,725 votes respectively, with the remaining 307 votes went to scattering. The constitution of Massachusetts required a candidate to receive a majority of votes cast in order to win the office outright; otherwise, the legislature would have the authority to choose among the leading candidates. Morton exceeded this threshold by just 1 vote, and had he not, the Whig controlled legislature would have been allowed to select the governor. The legislature could successfully deprive Morton of a majority if it disqualified the return from the town of Westfield. There was, moreover, an argument for doing so: the Westfield return was irregular and improper under the laws of the state because the attestation of its authenticity was not under seal. Instead, the return had been sealed first, and only afterward affixed with an attestation from the relevant local official. Despite pressure from partisans to contest this result, Everett refused. In the annals of American history there is not an equivalent example of a candidate in a major statewide election willing to forgo a victory so tantalizingly within reach based on, first, such a narrow margin and, second, such a readily available legal argument for invalidating disputed ballots.
1984		United States House of Representatives	Indiana's 8th District	0.00171%	4	116645	Indiana's Secretary of State initially certified Rick McIntyre as the winner by 34 votes, ignoring other recounted tallies that actually showed Frank McCloskey was in the lead. The Democratic-controlled House conducted their own recount and seated McCloskey after declaring him the winner by just four votes.
2013		Australian Senate	Western Australia	0.002125%	1	23532	Before senate electoral reform in 2016, the Australian senate was elected by a series of complex preference deals. At one point the next party to be eliminated was between the Shooters and Fishers Party and the Australian Christians. The margin was effectively one vote at that point in the count, and depending on which party was ahead either the Labor Party and PUP or the Sports Party and the Greens would have been elected. As the recount was taking place it became apparent that there were some missing ballots, which was greater than the margin, so the election was voided and a re-run was conducted in 2014.
1910		United States House of Representatives	36th District	0.00242%	1		Charles Bennett Smith, a Democrat, defeated the incumbent, Representative De Alva S. Alexander, a Republican, by one vote, 20,685 to 20,684.
1988		Massachusetts Governor's Council Democratic Primary	3rd District	0.00340%	1	14716	Herbert L. Connolly lost to Robert B. Kennedy by one vote, and it was his own. Connolly arrived at his precinct a few minutes after the polls closed and wasn't able to vote. Kennedy won the following general.
2003		Russian legislative	Sverdlovsk Oblast District 163	0.00342%	5	73083	Incumbent Georgy Leontyev held the seat by five votes, despite allegations of vote manipulations, later rejected by the Supreme Court
1919		Australian House of Representatives	Ballaarat	0.00369%	1	13569	Edwin Kerby defeated incumbent MP Charles McGrath by a single vote. The result was voided by the Court of Disputed Returns, which criticised the "almost incredible carelessness" of the electoral officers. McGrath won the subsequent by-election.
1997		United Kingdom general	Winchester	0.00383%	2	26100	In the General Election, Mark Oaten led Gerry Malone by 2 votes. A total of 55 ballot papers were excluded from the count for want of official mark, of which 18 were votes in favor of Oaten and 22 in favor of Malone. Therefore, Malone would have had a majority of 2 votes had they been included in the count. On hearing an Election Petition in the High Court on 6 October 1997 Lord Justice Brooke and Mr. Justice Gage ordered that there should be a fresh election. The petition also stated that four voters cast tendered ballots after claiming to have been impersonated, but the impersonators could not be found and the allegation was not pursued. In the subsequent by-election, Oaten easily beat Malone.
1882		United States House of Representatives	Virginia's 1st District	0.00476%	1	10505	The initial tally had incumbent Democrat George T. Garrison up 70 votes on Readjuster challenger Robert M. Mayo. The Readjuster-controlled State Board of Canvassers then threw out the votes of Gloucester County and Hog Island precinct. The new totals then had Mayo up one: 10,505–10,504.. Mayo was seated and served for a little over a year, but Garrison contested the result. The Committee of Elections then chose to accept the Gloucester County and Hog Island ballots and the House voted unanimously to seat Garrison.
1868		United States House of Representatives	North Carolina's 7th District	0.004841%	1	10329	was initially declared elected over Alexander H. Jones with an 18-vote majority: 10,347–10,329. When Republicans began to complain of fraud, the votes were sent to General Canby at Charleston, who threw out enough for Jones to defeat Durham. Jones was then elected by 1 vote, 10,329–10,328.
2004		Washington gubernatorial	Governor of Washington	0.004842%	133	1373361	Democrat Christine Gregoire defeated Republican Dino Rossi, following two recounts, after the initial count and first recount showed Rossi as the winner.
1931		United Kingdom general	Ilkeston	0.00569%	2	17587	A.J. Flint gained the seat from George Oliver. After the polls closed it became clear that the Ilkeston election was very close. There were four recounts overnight, and the Returning Officer decided to call a halt in the early hours to return later in the day. At the end of the fifth recount, the Returning Officer declared Flint elected by a majority of two votes over the sitting Labour MP. This result remains the joint smallest majority in any individual constituency election since universal suffrage.
2002		Irish general	Limerick West	0.00584%	1	8564	Going into the third count, sitting Fine Gael TD Dan Neville trailed his party colleague Michael Finucane, also an outgoing TD, 7,862 to 7,867 in the race for the third and final seat. He picked up 702 votes transferred from the eliminated candidates, six more than his opponent, to win by one vote. Finucane requested a recount, but when it became clear that the margin of his defeat would only increase, he requested the returning officer to terminate the recount, thus leaving the official margin of defeat at one vote. "I am happy enough with the findings and I accept it. Democracy has spoken and I am sure there are many people out there feeling sorry at this stage that they didn’t vote for me to tip me over the line."
1854		United States House of Representatives	Illinois' 7th District	0.00592%	1	8452	On the initial tally, incumbent Democrat James C. Allen was ahead of challenger Republican William B. Archer by one vote: 8452–8451. Archer contested. Livingston precinct had initially certified Allen and Archer's votes as 47–100. But they later certified that they had made a mistake and the vote should instead have been 46–102. In which case the overall vote should have been 8,451–8,453. The Committee of Elections concluded that Allen had won by at least 1 and probably 2 votes and recommended that he be seated. However, the House voted 94–90 that Allen would not be seated and also voted 91–89 that Archer would not be seated either. The seat was thus vacated. In the 1856 special election or rematch between Allen and Archer, Allen soundly defeated Archer 13,081–10,136.
1966		United Kingdom general	Peterborough	0.00626%	3	23944	Conservative Party incumbent Sir Harmar Nicholls defeated Labour Party challenger Michael Ward 23,944–23,941. Ward would again challenge and lose in 1970 and Feb 1974, but would win in Oct 1974.
1847		United States House of Representatives	Indiana's 6th District	0.0067%	1	7455	Whig George G. Dunn defeated Democrat David M. Dobson 7,455–7,454.
2017		United Kingdom general	North East Fife	0.00727%	2	13743	Stephen Gethins of the Scottish National Party saw off a challenge by Elizabeth Riches of the Liberal Democrats to retain the seat of former leader Menzies Campbell.
1962		Minnesota gubernatorial	Governor of Minnesota	0.00734%	91	619842	The vote count after election day had Governor Elmer L. Andersen in the lead by 142 votes. Then-Lieutenant Governor Karl Rolvaag went to court and won the right for a recount. After the recount, it was determined that Rolvaag of the DFL had defeated Andersen, Republican, by 91 votes out of over 1.2 million cast. Rolvaag collected 619,842 votes to Andersen's 619,751.
1918		United States House of Representatives	Iowa's 11th District	0.00768%	4	26033	The sitting Member George C. Scott had been returned by a majority of 131 votes, which Thomas J. Steele contested, alleging failure to count votes cast for the contestant and illegal counting of votes for the contestee. In the recount, the tally changed to 26,033–26,029 and after some legal wrangling, Scott was declared elected.
1991		Virginia House of Delegates	District 53	0.00770%	1	6493	On election night, officials determined that David G. Sanders, had won the seat by 17 votes out of nearly 13,000 cast. After a recount six weeks later, Mr. Scott was ruled the winner by a single vote. He immediately became known as "Landslide Jim."
2018		Kentucky House of Representatives	13th Representative District	0.0079%	1	6319	In the initial count, Democrat Jim Glenn defeated Republican incumbent DJ Johnson by 1 vote, which was confirmed by a recanvass. Johnson filed for a recount, and Glenn was seated on January 8, 2019. The House later ordered another recount which was carried out over the weekend of January 30. Following that recount, Glenn emerged as the winner by 3 votes, but then the County Board of Electors voted to reinstate one of the votes taken from Johnson earlier in the day and later to count five of 17 rejected absentee ballot. The result was a 6,323-6,323 tie. On February 8, 2019, when Glenn threatened to sue if a coin toss were held and he lost, Johnson withdrew his challenge, thus settling the election.
2014		North Carolina District Court	District 5	0.00813%	5	30746	Lindsey McKee Luther defeated Kent Harrell for North Carolina District Court, District 5 by five votes: 30,746–30,741.
1974		United Kingdom general	Carmarthen	0.00851%	3	17165	Labour Party incumbent Gwynoro Jones defeated Plaid Cymru candidate Gwynfor Evans 17,165–17,162. Jones had also beaten Evans in 1970, but would lose to Evans in Oct 1974.
2002		Washington House of Representatives Republican Primary	26th Legislative District	0.00852%	1	5870	Ed Mitchell defeated Kevin Entze by one vote: 5,870–5,869. Adding insult to injury, one of Entze's friends admitted that they never got their ballot mailed. "He left his ballot on his kitchen counter and it never got sent out," Entze said. Mitchell went on to narrowly lose the general election.
1912		Kansas gubernatorial	Governor of Kansas	0.00866%	29	167437	George H. Hodges defeated the popular Republican Arthur Capper by a razor-thin margin of 29 votes out of 359,684 cast.
1948		United States Senate Democratic Primary Runoff	Texas	0.00880%	87	494191	Lyndon B. Johnson is declared the winner over Coke R. Stevenson despite suspicion about 202 votes reported six days after the election from Precinct 13 of Jim Wells County.
1996		Vermont Senate	Rutland County	0.00911%	2	10978	There were six candidates for the three Rutland County Senate seats. On the night of the election, John H. Bloomer, Jr. and Cheryl M. Hooker received the first and second highest vote totals. Hull Maynard received the third highest total with 10,952 votes and Thomas Macaulay received the fourth highest total with 10,934 votes. Macaulay petitioned for a recount, whereupon the Rutland Superior Court determined that Maynard still beat Macaulay by two votes: 10,978–10,976. Macaulay's petition for further relief was dismissed by the Senate.
2000		United States presidential	Florida	0.00921%	537	2912790	Republican George W. Bush was ahead of Democrat Al Gore after the initial count by 1,784 votes. After a mandatory statewide recount his lead was cut to 327. After military and overseas ballots were added in, his lead increased to 930. An additional hand recount was halted by the United States Supreme Court which resulted in the certified margin. Florida was the tipping point state for Bush's presidential victory.
1982		New Hampshire Senate	District 8	0.00934%	1	5352	Incumbent George Wiggins defeated Fred Belair by 1 vote.
2010		United Kingdom general	Fermanagh and South Tyrone	0.00939%	4	21304	Michelle Gildernew defeated independent Rodney Connor.
1970		Missouri House of Representatives	District 116	0.01037%	1	4819	Both the initial count and a recount showed that incumbent Gus Salley had defeated Morran D. Harris, though a clerical error cost Salley 100 votes, indicating the real result was not nearly as close. Harris brought the case to the House Election Committee to decide, but they chose not to overturn the results.
1832		United States presidential	Maryland	0.01044%	4	19160	National Republican Henry Clay carried Maryland by four votes over Democratic President Andrew Jackson, but Jackson was reelected handily.
1910		United Kingdom general	Exeter	0.0105%	1	4777	Henry Duke, the incumbent at the time of the general election, re-gained the seat from Harold St Maur on an election petition in 1911. The court changed the original result. The revised result was the smallest numerical majority in a UK Parliamentary election in the twentieth century.
1914		United States House of Representatives	New York's 1st District	0.01073%	4	17726	Frederick C. Hicks, a Republican, defeated the incumbent, Representative Lathrop Brown, a Democrat, by four votes, 17,726 to 17,722.
2001		Cape Verdean presidential	President of Cape Verde	0.0112%	17	75828	Pedro Pires defeated Carlos Veiga in the second round of the election after neither won more than 50% in the first round.
1924		United Kingdom general	Leeds, West	0.0114%	3	13057	Labour Party candidate Thomas Stamford defeated Conservative Party candidate A.F.G. Renton 13,057–13,054. This was the lowest margin of victory in a Leeds parliamentary election.
1908		United States House of Representatives	Massachusetts's 10th District	0.0121%	4	16533	Representative Joseph F. O'Connell, a Democrat, defeated J. Mitchel Galvin, a Republican, by four votes, 16,553 to 16,549. The record does not disclose the official returns, but a recount before a bipartisan board under the laws of Massachusetts gave O'Connell 16,553 votes, Galvin 16,549 votes, and two other candidates 1,380 and 1,187 votes, respectively, a plurality of 4 votes for Galvin, the sitting Member.
1923		United Kingdom general	Devon, Tiverton	0.0122%	3	12303	Liberal Party incumbent Francis Dyke Acland defeated Conservative Party candidate Gilbert John Acland-Troyte 12,303–12,300. Acland had also defeated Acland-Troyte in the by-election earlier that same year, but Acland-Troyte would defeat Acland in 1924.
1972		Canadian federal	Ontario	0.0123%	4	16328	Liberal incumbent Norman Cafik defeated Progressive Conservative Frank Charles McGee. A PC win in this district would have resulted in a 108–108 tie with the Liberals in the overall seat count.
2008		United States Senate	Minnesota	0.01287%	312	1212629	After the first count, Norm Coleman edged out Al Franken by 215 votes, but following a state mandated recount, Al Franken defeated Norm Coleman by 225. Coleman contested the recount, after which Franken's lead grew to 312. After the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously rejected Coleman's appeals, he conceded the race to Franken on June 30, 2009, 238 days after the election.
1929		United Kingdom general	Cheshire, Northwich	0.01292%	4	15477	In this three-way race, Conservative Party incumbent Lord Colum Crichton-Stuart defeated Labour Party candidate Mrs. Barbara Ayrton-Gould 15,477–15,473. Chrichton-Stuart also defeated Mrs. Gould in 1924 and 1931.
1994		United States House of Representatives	Connecticut's 2nd district	0.0133%	21	79188	In this three-way race between Sam Gejdenson, Edward Munster, David Bingham, the initial official tally was 79,169–79,167–27,729. Following a recount, Gejdenson and Munster were 79,160–79,156 with 186,030 total votes cast. The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled instead that the correct final tally was 79,188–79,167 and so Gejdenson won.
2016		Vermont Senate Democratic Primary	Washington County District	0.0135%	1	3709	Superior Court Judge Timothy Tomasi determined that former Sergeant-at-Arms Francis K. Brooks defeated fourth-place finisher Ashley Hill by one vote, 3,709 to 3,708. The victory hinged on a disputed ballot from Worcester that Tomasi determined contained a vote for Brooks, but not one for Hill. Brooks went on to win the general election that fall.
1968		South Australian House of Assembly	Seat of Millicent	0.0138%	1		On 2 March 1968, Martin Cameron contested the seat of Millicent for the House of Assembly, standing against the sitting member, and minister in the Labor Cabinet, Des Corcoran. Narrowly losing the seat by one vote, the Liberal and Country League challenged the decision and the election was referred to the South Australian Court of Disputed Returns. The court ordered a by-election, which was held on 22 June. This was won comfortably by Corcoran, the Dunstan-led Australian Labor Party running the campaign on electoral reform.
1930		Canadian federal	Yamaska	0.0143%	1	3505	Liberal incumbent Aimé Boucher defeated Conservative Paul-François Comtois. The riding result was later declared void, and Boucher won the by-election in 1933 by 84 votes.
1968		Canadian federal	Leeds	0.01478%	4	13536	Progressive Conservative Desmond Code defeated Liberal incumbent John Matheson.
1945		United Kingdom general	Worcester	0.01479%	4		In this three-way race, Conservative Party candidate George Ward defeated Labour Party/Co-operative Party candidate J. Evans 13,523–13,519.
1949		Canadian federal	Annapolis—Kings	0.0152%	4	13202	Liberal Angus Alexander Elderkin defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent George Nowlan.
1968		Wisconsin House of Representatives	District 25	0.0153%	2		Official count showed a margin of 3 vote for Joseph L. Looby over Wilmer R. Waters, but it was 1 after a recount. A case was filed with the circuit court, where the judge declared the margin was two votes. An election committee investigated, but could make no proclamation of the true margin. After Waters appealed to the Republican controlled assembly, it voted unanimously to seat Looby.
2002		Connecticut House of Representatives	District 65	0.0155%	1		Republican Anne Ruwet defeated Democrat John S. Kovaleski by one vote.
1924		United States House of Representatives	New York's 21st District	0.0156%	10		Sitting Member Royal H. Weller had been returned by an official plurality of 245 votes, which the contestant Martin C. Ansorge contested. Following a recount, the tally was 32,089–32,079 and Weller was declared elected.
1964		United Kingdom general	Brighton Kemptown	0.0157%	7		Labour Party challenger Dennis Hobden defeated incumbent Conservative Party David James 22,308–22,301.
1870		United States House of Representatives	Indiana's 4th District	0.0159%	4		Republican Jeremiah M. Wilson defeated Democrat David S. Gooding by 4 votes: 12561–12557. Gooding contested. The Committee's majority report gave Wilson a "clear legal majority of 8", while the minority report gave Gooding a majority of 17. The US House then voted 105–64 "on strictly party lines" to reject the minority report, accept the majority report, and thereby seat Wilson.
1950		Maryland Senate	Garrett county	0.0162%	1		Republican incumbent Neil C. Fraley defeated Democrat challenger Bernard I. Gonder by one vote: 3,080–3,079. Gonder contested the result but to no avail.
1983		United Kingdom general	Leicester South	0.0163%	7		Conservative Party challenger Derek Spencer defeated Labour Party incumbent Jim Marshall 21,424–21,417.
1988		Canadian federal	London—Middlesex	0.0165%	8	18534	Progressive Conservative MP Terry Clifford narrowly edged out Liberal Garnet Bloomfield.
2005		Virginia General	Virginia Attorney General	0.01663%	323		Bob McDonnell was certified as the victor over Creigh Deeds following a recount.
1988		Massachusetts Governor's Council Democratic Primary	3rd District	0.0170%	5		In the recount, Robert B. Kennedy led Herbert Connolly by one vote: 14,716–14,715. In the recount, Kennedy again led by one vote: 14,691–14,690. Connolly contested the result. The Supreme Judicial Court considered 116 contested votes and decided ultimately that Kennedy won by five votes: 14,709–14,704.
1829		United States House of Representatives	Kentucky's 2nd District	0.0179%	1		Jacksonsian candidate Nicholas D. Coleman defeated Adams candidate Adam Beatty 2520–2519.
2018		Pakistani general	Mardan-II	0.0181%	35		Awami National Party's Ameer Haider Hoti defeated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Atif Khan 78,911-78,876.
2003		Somaliland presidential	President of Somaliland	0.0195%	80	205595	Dahir Riyale Kahin, of the For Unity, Democracy, and Independence party narrowly defeated the Peace, Unity, and Development Party's Ahmed M. Mahamoud Silanyo in a three-way race.
1974		United Kingdom general	Bodmin	0.0196%	9		Liberal challenger Paul Tyler defeated Conservative Party incumbent Robert Hicks 20,283–20,274.
2006		Oklahoma House or Representatives	District 25	0.0208%	2	4798	Initially Democrat Darrel Nemecek beat Republican Todd Thomsen by two votes for the Oklahoma House of Representatives seat in its 25th district. But during the recount, a Hughes County judge threw out four votes for Nemecek when it was discovered the voters who cast the contested ballots were not registered to vote in the district. Though Nemecek argued that the straight-party option was confusing and voter intent was clear on some ballots that were not counted for him, Thomsen was declared the winner and sworn in.
2004		Commonwealth's Attorney Special Election	Radford District	0.0211%	1		Chris E. Rehak defeated Patrick Moore by 1 vote, and a recount didn't change the margin.
1896		Canadian federal	Ontario North	0.0215%	1	2328	Liberal-Conservative John Alexander McGillivray defeated Patrons of Industry Duncan Graham.
1900		Canadian federal	Selkirk	0.0230%	1	2172	Liberal William Forsythe McCreary defeated Conservative John Herber Haslam. This was the second time in a row that a Liberal candidate defeated his Conservative rival in this riding by a single vote.
1904		United States presidential	Maryland	0.0233%	51	109497	Republican President Theodore Roosevelt barely carried Maryland over Democrat Alton Parker on his way to an electoral landslide.
1970		United Kingdom general	Ipswich	0.0234%	13		Conservative Party incumbent Ernle Money defeated Labour Party challenger Dingle Foot 27,704–27,691.
1959		United Kingdom general	South East Derbyshire	0.0236%	12		Conservative Party challenger John Jackson defeated Labour Party incumbent Arthur Champion 25,374–25,362.
1964		United Kingdom general	Reading	0.0240%	10		Conservative Party incumbent Peter Emery defeated Labour Party challenger John Lee 20,815–20,810. Lee would later defeat Emery in 1966.
1822		United States House of Representatives	New York's 29th District	0.0241%	1		Initially, Isaac Wilson and Parmenio Adams had 2,093–2,077 votes. On a recount, the tally changed to 2,071–2,072. There were also irregularities raised. The committee of elections considered it "doubtful, from the evidence, who ought to have been returned". The House then voted 116–85 to seat Adams.
1900		Canadian federal	Bruce North	0.0242%	1	2065	Liberal-Conservative incumbent Alexander McNeill defeated Liberal J. E. Campbell.
1964		United Kingdom general	Eton and Slough	0.024255%	11		Conservative Party challenger Anthony Meyer defeated Labour Party incumbent Fenner Brockway 22,681–22,670.
1923		United Kingdom general	Durham, Sedgefield	0.0252%	6		Conservative Party challenger Leonard Ropner defeated Labour Party incumbent John Herriotts 11,093–11,087.
2016		New York Senate	8th District	0.0256%	33	64499	John Brooks secured a spot in the State Senate by defeating incumbent Republican Michael Venditto.
1980		Utah House of Representatives	District 44	0.0259%	1		A recount gave Republican Bob Curran a 1-vote victory over the incumbent Democrat Jen Patterson, after leading by 2 votes following the official canvass.
1914		Australian House of Representatives	Werriwa	0.0266%	7		John Lynch defeated the sitting member Alfred Conroy by seven votes.
1930		Canadian federal	Norfolk—Elgin	0.0266%	5	9424	Liberal William H. Taylor defeated Conservative John Lawrence Stansell.
1832		United States House of Representatives	Ohio's 7th District	0.02675%	2		William Allen defeated General and 11th Governor of Ohio Duncan McArthur by two votes: 3739–3737. According to Niles' National Register, a third candidate by the name of Murphy also won 55 votes.
1899		New Zealand House of Representatives		0.02678%	1	1867	Incumbent MP William Rolleston lost his seat to Liberal challenger George Warren Russell after a margin of only 1 vote separated the two on the final count.
1876		United States House of Representatives	Massachusetts' 3rd District	0.0268%	5		After much investigation, the Committee of Elections gave Walbridge Field the 5-vote majority over Benjamin Dean.
1970		Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Primary	14th Essex	0.02722%	3		In a 3-way race, Edward J. Grimley, Jr. topped Gerard A. Guilmette by 3 votes, but Guilmette ran in the general and topped him by 2.2%. The two would meet again in both the 1972 primary and general with Grimley winning both, also in close races. Guilmette would then serve two terms representing 25th Essex.
1970		Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Primary	17th Worcester	0.02723%	2		Andrew Collaro defeated Robert J. Bohigian, but then Bohigian defeated him by 900+ votes in the general. Collaro and Bohigian would repeat this process in 1972 and then Collaro would represent 22nd and 15th Worcester from 1974–1992. Bohigian would serve until he lost re-election in 1990.
2017		French legislative	Loiret's 4th constituency	0.0275%	8	14561	Four-term incumbent Jean-Pierre Door of The Republicans narrowly defeated Mélusine Harlé of La République En Marche! by 8 votes in the second round. Harlé filed an appealed the result to the Constitutional Council, which annulled the election on 18 December 2017 due to the number of ballots not corresponding to the number of signatures in one commune and the improper dissemination of electoral materials which was considered sufficient to potentially have altered the result of the election. Door won the seat in a 2018 election.
1843		United States House of Representatives	Indiana's 7th District	0.0276%	3		Democrat Joseph A. Wright defeated Whig Edward W. McGaughey 5,441–5,438.
2007		Australian federal	Division of McEwen	0.02794%	31	48339	Liberal Fran Bailey defeated Labor Rob Mitchell following a recount and court challenge.
1891		Canadian federal	Wentworth South	0.02821%	1	1773	Conservative Franklin Carpenter defeated Liberal James T. Russell.
1970		Rhode Island House of Representatives	District 26	0.0284%	1	1760	After recounts, Democrat John F. Hagan beat the Republican nominee Benedetto A. Cerilli.
1997		United Kingdom general	Torbay	0.0285%	12	21094	Liberal Democrat candidate Adrian Sanders gained the seat from the sitting Conservative MP Rupert Allason.
1887		Canadian federal	Haldimand	0.02865%	1	1746	Conservative Walter Humphries Montague defeated Liberal incumbent Charles Wesley Colter.
1896		Canadian federal	Selkirk	0.02920%	1	1713	Liberal John Alexander MacDonell defeated Conservative Hugh Armstrong.
1979		Virginia Senate	District 37	0.0293%	9		Madison Marye defeated Edwin E. Stone by 20 votes and a December 4, 1979 narrowed the margin to 9.
1935		Canadian federal	Vancouver—Burrard	0.0294%	6	10215	Liberal Gerald Grattan McGeer defeated Co-operative Commonwealth candidate Arnold Alexander Webster by 6 votes.
2016		Philippine House of Representatives	Northern Samar's 1st District	0.02951%	47		Liberal incumbent Raul Daza defeated Nacionalista Harlin Abayon in a rematch of the 2013 election where Abayon won by 52 votes. Daza won against Abayon's protest in the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal.
1912		United States presidential	California	0.0307%	174	283610	Former President Theodore Roosevelt, running on the Republican and Progressive ballot lines in California, narrowly edged out Democrat Woodrow Wilson in California, but Wilson won a landslide in the Electoral College due to divided Republican opposition.
1998		New Hampshire Senate	District 16	0.0318%	5		Patricia Kreuger defeated Stephen DeStefano by 16 votes. Following a recount that was narrowed to 7. DeStefano appealed the recount but the count was only changed by 2 votes.
1945		United Kingdom general	Manchester, Rusholme	0.0324%	10		Labour Party candidate Hugh Lester Hutchinson defeated Conservative Party incumbent Frederick William Cundiff 15,408–15,398.
1976		United States House of Representatives Democratic Primary	Massachusetts's 1st District	0.0330%	13		Edward McColgan beat Edward O'Brien and then lost the general election.
1917		Australian House of Representatives	Macquarie	0.0331%	9		Samuel Nicholls defeated the sitting member Ernest Carr by nine votes.
1935		Canadian federal	Souris	0.0333%	3	4504	Liberal-Progressive George William McDonald defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent Errick French Willis.
2011		New Zealand general		0.0334%	9	13465	National incumbent Paula Bennett retained her seat over Labour challenger Carmel Sepuloni after a judicial recount was requested by Bennett. The original official result had Sepuloni winning with a margin of 11 votes.
1929		United Kingdom general	Birmingham Ladywood	0.0335%	11		Labour Party candidate Wilfred Whiteley defeated Conservative Party candidate Geoffrey Lloyd 16,447–16,436.
2011		Scottish Parliament	Glasgow Anniesland	0.0339%	7	10329	Incumbent Labour MSP Bill Butler was defeated by Bill Kidd of the Scottish National Party.
1964		United Kingdom general	Preston North	0.0340%	14		Conservative Party incumbent Julian Amery defeated Labour Party challenger Russell Kerr 20,566–20,552.
2006		United States House of Representatives	Connecticut's 2nd District	0.0342%	83		Democrat challenger Joe Courtney was up 167 votes on Republican incumbent Rob Simmons after the initial vote. On the recount, Courtney remained the victor by 83 votes: 121,248–121,165.
1955		Virginia House of Delegates	District 55	0.0346%	2		John A. Mackenzie defeated William J. Moody
1978		New Hampshire Senate Republican Primary	District 14	0.0356%	3		Incumbent Thomas J. Claveau defeated Phyllis Keeney.
1964		United States Senate	Nevada	0.03565%	48	67336	Democratic incumbent Howard Cannon defeated Republican Paul Laxalt.
2013		Philippine House of Representatives	Northern Samar's 1st District	0.03569%	52		Nacionalista Harlin Abayon defeated Liberal incumbent Raul Daza. Daza won on a recount by the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and replaced Abayon, but Abayon won an appeal in the Supreme Court. Abayon was still not seated in the last day of the 16th Congress.
1945		Canadian federal	Colchester—Hants	0.0357%	8	11141	Progressive Conservative Frank Stanfield defeated Liberal incumbent Gordon Timlin Purdy.
2000		South Korean legislature	Gwangju	0.0360%	3	48828	GNP Park Hyuk-kyu defeated MDP Moon Hak-jin by an official tally of 3-vote difference.
1982		Maine House of Representatives	District 69	0.0361%	1		Unofficial counts said it was tied, but all subsequent counts were 1,387–1,386 Winner was Walter R. Sherburne.
1990		Ohio general	Ohio Attorney General	0.03672%	1,234		Democratic candidate Lee Fisher defeated Republican Paul Pfeifer after a six-week recount, earning him the ironic nickname "Landslide Lee".
2000		Canadian federal	Champlain	0.03674%	15	20423	Bloc Québécois candidate Marcel Gagnon narrowly edged out Liberal Julie Boulet.
1859		United States House of Representatives	Tennessee's 9th District	0.0371%	7		Emerson Etheridge defeated Democrat John DeWitt Clinton Atkins, 9,437–9,430.
1922		United Kingdom general	Manchester, Clayton	0.0372%	11		Conservative Party candidate William Henry Flanagan defeated Labour Party candidate John Edward Sutton, 14,800–14,789. Sutton had beaten Flanagan in the by-election earlier that year.
2018		Victoria Legislative Assembly	Electoral district of Ripon	0.03745%	15	20035	Incumbent Louise Staley of the Liberal Party defeated Sarah de Santis of the Labor Party
2018		Alaska House of Representatives	District 1	0.03755%	1		Republican nominee Bart LeBon defeated Democrat Kathryn Dodge 2,663-2,662 following a recount and a state supreme court challenge. Dodge challenged the findings of the Division of Elections on three ballots, two that were counted and one that was not, but the Supreme Court upheld the count and Dodge conceded. The race decided control of the Alaska House of Representatives, technically giving Republicans a majority, but due to defections created a 20–20 tie instead of Democratic control. After weeks of deadlock, Bryce Edgmon switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Independent and was re-elected Speaker and several committees were set up with bipartisan leadership.
1951		United Kingdom general	Belfast West	0.03769%	25		Irish Labour candidate Jack Beattie defeated UUP incumbent Thomas Teevan, 33,174–33,149.
1968		Canadian federal	Comox—Alberni	0.03771%	9	11939	Liberal Richard Durante defeated New Democrat incumbent Thomas Speakman Barnett. The result was later declared void and Durante lost the by-election to Barnett in 1969.
1935		United Kingdom general	Kingswinford	0.0382%	16		Labour Party challenger Arthur Henderson defeated Conservative Party incumbent Alan Livesey Stuart Todd, 20,925–20,909.
1896		Canadian federal	York East	0.03841%	1	3907	Independent Conservative incumbent William F. McLean defeated Liberal Henry R. Frankland.
2018		New Hampshire House of Representatives	Belknap 3 District	0.0387%	2		Gail Ober missed out on the fourth spot by 2 votes to incumbent Lisa Beaudoin.
2008		Canadian federal	Kitchener—Waterloo	0.0390%	17	21830	Conservative Peter Braid defeated Liberal Andrew Telegdi after a recount.
1992		United Kingdom general	Vale of Glamorgan	0.0392%	19		Conservative Party challenger Walter Sweeney defeated Labour Party incumbent John William Patrick Smith, 24,220–24,201. Smith would beat Sweeney in 1997.
2017		Argentina legislative	La Pampa	0.0395%	76		The Justicialist Party defeated Cambiemos. The Justicialist Party won 2 Deputies and Cambiemos 1 Deputy.
2008		Alaska House of Representatives	District 7	0.0398%	4		Incumbent Republican Mike Kelly defeated Democratic challenger Karl Kassel, 5,024–5,020, following a recount.
1990		Illinois House of Representatives	55th district	0.0406%	6		Initially, Rosemary Mulligan and Penny Pullen were certified as having 7,431–7,400 votes and Mulligan was declared the winner. The trial court ordered a recount that then had them tied at 7,387–7,387. The Illinois Compiled Statutes required that ties be resolved by lot. Mulligan won the coin flip and was declared the winner by the trial court. Pullen then appealed, and the Illinois Supreme Court decided that the correct vote count was 7,392–7,386, with Pullen declared the winner. Two years later Mulligan took another swing at the seat, and defeated Pullen in a race so close it also required a recount.
1991		Virginia House of Delegates	District 58	0.0408%	7		C. Timothy Lindstrom was originally declared the winner, but later it was discovered that election officials in Greene County misread a "9" as a "0" and Peter Way went on to win the election.
2013		Virginia General	Virginia Attorney General	0.0411%	907		Democratic candidate Mark Herring defeated Republican candidate Mark Obenshain. The initial count was 1,103,777–1,103–612—a 165 or 0.01% margin. The recount was 1,105,045–1,104,138 — a 907 or 0.04% margin.
1994		Massachusetts Governor's Council Democratic Primary	4th District	0.0420%	26		Christopher A. Iannella, Jr. defeated John J. Kerrigan. Iannella won the general unopposed.
1870		United States House of Representatives	South Carolina's At-large District	0.0425%	61		South Carolina was readmitted to Congress in 1868, after passage of the 14th Amendment. That amendment ended the three-fifths rule effectively raising the population of states that once had slavery. As a result, South Carolina and other slave states tried to seat extra members of Congress. South Caroline choose two additional congress members during at-large election. In one of those, Johann Peter Martin Epping defeated Lucius W. Wimbush by 61 votes: 71,803–71,742. But the House refused to seat him and the other at-large winner. "A number of southern states upon readmission claimed that since their slaves were emancipated, they were entitled to larger delegations in the House. Epping's election falls in this category. The claims were rejected by the House."
2014		Parliament of South Australia	Fisher state by-election	0.04371%	9	10299	By-election caused by the death of sitting independent MP Bob Such. The Australian Labor Party candidate Nat Cook beat the Liberal Party candidate, Heidi Harris, by 9 votes.
1974		Canadian federal	Drummond	0.0447%	13	14561	Liberal Yvon Pinard defeated Social Credit incumbent Jean-Marie Boisvert.
1979		Canadian federal	Halifax	0.0453%	15	16570	Progressive Conservative George Cooper defeated Liberal Brian Flemming.
2006		Vermont Auditor of Accounts	Vermont Auditor of Accounts	0.0456%	102		The initial count gave the victory to Randy Brock by 137 votes, but after a recount, Thomas M. Salmon was declared the winner by just 102 votes. The final tally gave Salmon 111,770 votes and Republican Brock 111,668.
1922		United Kingdom general	Portsmouth, Central	0.0457%	7		In this four-way race, Conservative Party candidate Frank Privett defeated National Liberal candidate T. Fisher 7,666–7,659.
2005		British Columbia general	Vancouver-Burrard	0.0458%	11	12009	On election night, Tim Stevenson of the British Columbia New Democratic Party had the lead over Lorne Mayencourt of the British Columbia Liberal Party, but Mayencourt had a 17-vote lead after a recount. When the absentee ballots were counted later, Maynecourt widened his lead by 1 vote. Following an additional recount ordered by the courts, Maynecourt retained an 11-vote lead and was declared the winner. Stevenson sued, arguing that 71 absentee ballots had improperly certified and thus uncounted and that a new election was needed, but then dropped the suit to run for a seat on the city council.
1993		Canadian federal	Edmonton Northwest	0.0476%	12	12599	Liberal candidate Anne McLellan narrowly edged out Reform candidate Richard Kayler.
1853		United States House of Representatives	Georgia's 3rd District	0.0478%	5		Democrat David J. Bailey defeated Whig Robert P. Trippe 5232–5227.
2017		United Kingdom general	Perth and North Perthshire	0.0482%	21	21804	The incumbent Scottish National Party narrowly defeated Conservative candidate Ian Duncan.
1945		United Kingdom general	Cheshire, Northwich	0.0486%	15		In this three-way race, Conservative Party candidate John Foster defeated Labour Party candidate Prof. Robert Chorley 15,477–15,473.
1968		Canadian federal	Oshawa—Whitby	0.0493%	15	15224	New Democrat Ed Broadbent defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent Michael Starr.
2014		Ukrainian parliamentary	79th constituency	0.0495%	17	17197	An indenpendent representative of Zaporizhia Iron Ore Works Oleksandr Hryhorchuk initially defeated the pro-Party of Regions incumbent Volodymyr Bandurov by 138 votes. Bandurov contested the result and obtained a recount, and won with a margin of 17 votes following the recount. Hryhorchuk contested the recount as irregular.
2016		Vermont House of Representatives	Windsor-Orange 1 District	0.0498%	1	1004	This was the fourth matchup between incumbent Democrat Sarah Buxton and Republican David Ainsworth. The initial tally had Buxton leading by 3 votes: 1,003–1,000. The first recount had them both tied at 1,000. The second recount then had Ainsworth win by one vote, 1,004–1,003. Buxton did not make any further appeals and this was the final result.
1940		Kansas gubernatorial	Governor of Kansas	0.0505%	430		Burke came within 430 votes of beating Gov. Ratner for reelection.
1854		United States House of Representatives	Pennsylvania's 5th District	0.0510%	8		Democrat John Cadwalader defeated anti-Nebraska Whig Jones 7,842–7,834.
2009		Party Leader	Action démocratique du Québec	0.0511%	2		After longtime leader Mario Dumont stepped down from the leadership of the party, an election was held. In a very close race, Gilles Taillon defeated his opponent Éric Caire, by just 2 votes.
1833		United States House of Representatives	Indiana's 2nd District	0.0520%	2	1921	In this 6-way race, Whig John Ewing defeated Democrat John W. Davis by 2 votes: 1921–1919.
1870		United States House of Representatives	Pennsylvania's 17th District	0.05324%	11		Democrat challenger Milton Speer defeated Republican incumbent Daniel J. Morrell by 11 votes: 10335–10324. Morrell declined to contest the results, blaming the loss on the "base treachery and debauchery of professed Republicans."
1887		Canadian federal	Montmorency	0.05328%	1	939	Liberal Charles Langelier defeated Conservative P. V. Valin.
2016		United States House of Representatives Republican Primary	Arizona's 5th District	0.0535%	27		On the night of the Republican Primary for the seat being vacated by Congressman Matt Salmon, State Senator Andy Biggs lead by a total of 16 votes against Republican challenger Christine Jones. After a recount that lead widened to 27 votes, and Jones conceded the election.
1945		United Kingdom general	Caithness and Sutherland	0.0539%	6		In this very close three-way race where each candidate received 33% of the vote, Unionist Party candidate Eric Gandar Dower defeated Labour Party candidate Robert Ian Aonas MacInnes 5,564–5,558. The Conservative Party incumbent Archibald Sinclair had 5,503 votes.
1974		United Kingdom general	Peterborough	0.05407%	22		Conservative Party incumbent Sir Harmar Nicholls defeated Labour Party challenger Michael Ward 20,353–20,331. Ward had also lost to Nicholls in 1966 and 1970, but would win in Oct 1974.
1983		United Kingdom general	Hyndburn	0.05414%	21		Conservative Party candidate Ken Hargreaves defeated Labour Party candidate Arthur Davidson 19,405–19,384. This seat was created in 1983.
1986		United States House of Representatives	North Carolina's 6th District	0.0546%	79		Republican candidate Howard Coble defeated Democratic candidate Robin Britt.
1964		United Kingdom general	Ealing North	0.0561%	27		Labour Party challenger William Molloy defeated Conservative Party incumbent John Barter 20,809–20,782.
2010		Vermont House of Representatives	Windsor-Orange 1 District	0.0567%	1	882	On the initial tally, challenger Democrat Sarah Buxton and incumbent Republican David Ainsworth had 882-881 votes. On a recount, they were tied, with one mailed-in military vote for Buxton rejected. Buxton appealed and the Superior Court ruled that vote valid, so that Buxton still won by one vote. Ainsworth then appealed but the House voted along party lines to uphold Buxton's one-vote victory. Remarkably, their fourth matchup in 2016 would again be decided by one vote, but with the result reversed.
2012		United States presidential	Iowa Republican caucuses	0.0570%	34	29839	Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum defeated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the statewide Republican caucuses, the closest GOP primary election in United States history. Romney had been declared the winner by 8 votes on caucus night.
1930		Kansas gubernatorial	Governor of Kansas	0.0576%	251		Harry H. Woodring won a three-way race between himself, Frank Haucke, and John R. Hinckley.
1903		Australian House of Representatives	Riverina	0.0576%	5		Robert Blackwood defeated the sitting member John Chanter by five votes. The result was overturned and Chanter won a by-election by 363 votes.
2014		Ukrainian parliamentary	22nd constituency	0.0578%	28	24245	Ihor Lapin, 24,245–24,217.
1959		United Kingdom general	Birmingham All Saints	0.05806%	20		Conservative Party challenger John Harold Hollingworth defeated Labour Party incumbent Denis Herbert Howell 17,235–17,215.
2011		Canadian federal	Nipissing—Timiskaming	0.05812%	18	15495	Conservative Jay Aspin defeated Liberal incumbent Anthony Rota.
1870		United States House of Representatives	Pennsylvania's 16th District	0.0584%	15		Democrat challenger Benjamin F. Meyers defeated Republican incumbent John Cessna by 15 votes: 12,859–12,844. Cessna contested the election and on January 18, 1872 the House Committee on Elections decided in favor of Meyers. In a rematch later that year, Cessna reclaimed his seat.
1990		Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Primary	11th Essex	0.0599%	5	4175	Edward J. Clancy Jr. defeated Thomas M. McGee.
1972		Newfoundland general	Labrador South	0.06%	1	1865	Josiah Harvey of the Liberal Party narrowly held onto his seat against Labrador Party candidate Michael Martin. A rematch was held later that year, in which Martin won the seat.
2012		Ukrainian parliamentary	184th constituency	0.0607%	22	18123	In a first-past-the-post race with 9 candidates, he Party of Regions candidate Mykola Dmytruk defeated an independent Ivan Vynnyk 18,123 –18,101. Vynnyk contested the result, stating that official counts from all polling places make him the winner with a margin of 177 votes and requested a new vote. The Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine declined, Vynnyk appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
2017		French legislative	Corrèze's 2nd constituency	0.06105%	23	18849	Frédérique Meunier of The Republicans narrowly held onto his seat against ex-Socialist senator Patricia Bordas, invested by La République En Marche!.
2017		United Kingdom general	Kensington	0.06126%	20	16333	Labour Emma Dent Coad defeated Conservative Victoria Borwick after 3 recounts over two days.
2016		New Hampshire Senate	District 7	0.06128%	17		The initial count showed Republican Harold French with a 13-vote lead over Democrat Andrew Hosmer. Following a recount, that widened to 17 votes.
1950		Michigan gubernatorial	Governor of Michigan	0.0614%	1,154		Incumbent Democratic G. Mennen Williams defeated Republican former Governor Harry Kelly.
2018		Idaho Senate	District 15	0.0615%	11		The initial count showed Incumbent Republican Fred Martin ahead with a 6-vote lead over Democratic challenger Jim Bratnober. Following a recount, that widened to 11 votes.Lozova
2018		Washington State Senate	District 42	0.06204%	45	36291	Republican incumbent Doug Erickson defeated Democrat Pinky Vargas by 45 votes after a recount.
2010		Illinois gubernatorial Republican Primary	Governor of Illinois	0.06209%	193	155527	Bill Brady defeated Kirk Dillard.
1998		South Dakota House of Representatives	District 12	0.06217%	4		In this remarkable rematch, four candidates Democrats John R. McIntyre and Robert Litz; and, Republicans Hal Wick and Judy Rost were contesting two seats. On the initial count, they had respectively 3,229, 2,250, 3,229, and 3,790 . As in 1996, Rost won the first seat, while McIntyre and Wick tied for the second seat. But on a recount, McIntyre was found to be ahead by 4 votes, with the final official tally being 3,219, 2,244, 3,215, 3,776 . The House then voted 36–33, this time to seat McIntyre.
1892		United States presidential	California	0.06224%	147	269609	Former President Grover Cleveland narrowly carried California over Republican President Benjamin Harrison and went on to reclaim the presidency in a rematch of the 1888 presidential elections, thus becoming both the 22nd and 24th president of the United States.
1960		United States presidential	Hawaii	0.06226%	115	92410	Just a year after becoming the fiftieth State, Hawaii surprised many political experts by voting for Democrat John F. Kennedy over Republican Richard Nixon, albeit by a very small margin.
1970		Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Primary	6th Hampden	0.0625%	3		In a 3-way race, James L. Grimaldi topped Anthony M. Scibelli by 3 votes. Grimaldi would win the general, but then lose the 1972 primary to Scibelli. He'd win the seat in 14th Hampden twice and then lose the seat for 10th Hampden to Scibelli. Scibelli would serve from 1972 to 2000.
1976		Massachusetts Senate Democratic Primary	2nd Essex and Middlesex	0.06262%	13		William X. Wall defeated James M. Shannon on his way to winning the seat.
2013		Australian federal	Division of Fairfax	0.06264%	53	42330	Clive Palmer defeated Ted O'Brien of the Liberal National Party of Queensland following two recounts in a ranked choice voting runoff.
1896		United States presidential	Kentucky	0.06352%	277	218171	William McKinley was elected president twice by comfortable Electoral College majorities, but his only victory in a Southern state was his razor-thin win over William Jennings Bryan in Kentucky in his initial presidential run, becoming the first Republican ever to win Kentucky. McKinley won Kentucky; however one Elector cast a vote for Bryan.
2012		New Mexico House of Representatives	District 37	0.0638%	8		Two weeks after the election was over, the vote was still tied and went to a recount, which Republican Terry McMillan won by 8 votes. After another close loss in 2014, Democrat Joanne Ferrary defeated McMillan in 2016.
2000		United States presidential	New Mexico	0.0639%	366	286783	Since Florida's electoral votes decided George W. Bush's electoral college win over Al Gore, little attention was paid to the fact that New Mexico's outcome was even closer than the Florida result, this time with Gore coming out ahead.
1916		United States presidential	New Hampshire	0.06400%	56	43781	Although the 0.38% victory margin for President Woodrow Wilson in California—which gave Wilson the thirteen electoral votes he needed to win reelection over Republican Charles Evans Hughes—garnered most of the attention, Wilson's surprise 56-vote victory over Hughes in New Hampshire was the closest contest in the election.
1828		United States House of Representatives	Maine's 5th District	0.0642%	3		In the September 1828 election, Reuel Washburn and James Ripley had 2,495–2,180 votes. But Maine law required that the winner have an absolute majority of the votes, i.e. 2,498 votes and so Washburn was 3 short. A new election was held in December 1828 and Ripley won a majority. There was some further wrangling but eventually Ripley was declared elected.
2004		Ohio Senate Republican Primary	14th District	0.06438%	22	17098	Jean Schmidt won the first count by 62 votes, but Tom Niehaus prevailed in a recount and went on to win the general election.
2016		New Mexico House of Representatives	29th District	0.0645%	9	6976	Republican Dave Adkins recaptured his spot in the New Mexico House over challenger Ronnie Martinez. The original count had him ahead by just two votes. But a recount widened that lead to 9.
2016		Philippine House of Representatives	Leyte's 3rd District	0.06466%	56		NUP's Vicente Veloso won an open seat contest against Liberal Tingting Salvacion, daughter of term-limited Andres Salvacion.
2018		Iowa House of Representatives	District 55	0.06503%	9	6924	Republican Incumbent Michael Bergan won the initial vote count over Democrat Kayla Koether by 7 votes and the recount by 9. Koether contested the election, arguing that 29 of 33 disputed absentee ballots were wrongly rejected. The ballots were received on time and the barcode proved they were mailed prior to the election, as required by law, but the barcode used on the disputed ballot differed from the postage stamp or “intelligent mail barcode" called for by the Iowa Code and administrative rules. After a district judge declined to decide if the ballots should be counted, Koether petitioned the Iowa House to settle the matter. On party-line votes in both the committee and the Iowa House, legislators decided that the Iowa House did not have the legal authority to open and count the ballots.
2018		Minnesota House of Representatives	District 5A	0.06510%	11	8454	Democratic-Farmer-Labor party candidate John Persell beat incumbent Republican Representative Matt Bliss by 11 votes after a recount that extended his margin by 3 votes.
1988		Iowa House of Representatives Democratic Primary	District 67	0.06515%	1	768	Bob Hellyer won the Democratic primary for Iowa House District 67 by one vote. Hellyer received 768 and James Martley received 767.
2006		Italian general	Chamber of Deputies and Prime Minister	0.06518%	24,755	19002598	The centre-left coalition The Union led by Romano Prodi defeated the centre-right House of Freedoms of incumbent Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
1971		Virginia House of Delegates	District 23	0.0677%	27		Herbert N. Morgan narrowly defeated H. Richard Chew
2008		Canadian federal	Vancouver South	0.06833%	22	16110	Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh defeated Conservative Wai Young after two recounts.
1832		United States House of Representatives	New York's 18th District	0.06834%	6		Democrat Daniel Wardwell defeated Anti-Masonic candidate Daniel Lee by 6 votes: 4,393–4,387.
2004		North Carolina general	North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture	0.06868%	2,287		Republican Steve Troxler defeated Democrat Britt Cobb.
1930		United States House of Representatives	Missouri's 3rd District	0.0704%	46		According to the returns as originally certified, incumbent Jacob L. Milligan and challenger H. F. Lawrence had 32,665–32,626 votes. The recount of this precinct gave Milligan a clear majority of 46 votes, with the vote being 32,669–32,623.
1952		United States presidential	Kentucky	0.07065%	700		Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in a landslide, but lost Kentucky by the smallest margin of any state Presidential battle for thirty-six years, giving a sixth straight Democrat win in the Bluegrass State.
1974		United Kingdom general	East Dunbartonshire	0.071%	22		In a three-way race, SNP challenger Margaret Bain defeated Conservative Party incumbent Barry Henderson 15,551–15,529. Henderson had defeated both Bain and McGarry earlier in the Feb 1974 election.
2002		Massachusetts House of Representatives	18th Worchester	0.0714%	4		Jennifer Callahan defeated Robert Dubois by 4 votes and then went on to win the seat. She lost re-election in 2010 and DuBois won nomination for the seat in 2012. He lose in the general.
2014		Massachusetts House of Representatives	1st Essex	0.0717%	10		James M. Kelcourse defeated Edward C. Cameron.
1959		Singaporean general	River Valley	0.07294%	5	3430	People's Action Party candidate Lim Cheng Lock defeated Soh Ghee Soon of the Singapore People's Alliance.
2014		United States House of Representatives	Arizona's 2nd district	0.07343%	161	109704	Martha McSally defeated Ron Barber, officially announced a month after the election, after a legally-mandated recount. McSally had lost to Barber in 2012 by 2,454 votes.
1919		Maryland gubernatorial	Governor of Maryland	0.0735%	165		After several days of vote counting, Mr. Ritchie was declared the winner, 112,240 votes to 112,075.
1870		United States House of Representatives	Kentucky's 8th District	0.0737%	18		Democrat incumbent George M. Adams defeated Republican challenger Hugh F. Finley by 18 votes: 12,226–12,208.
2016		Pennsylvania House of Representatives	District 31	0.07381%	28	18982	Democrat Perry Warren defeated Republican Ryan Gallagher for District 31 of the PA House of Representatives.
2002		United States House of Representatives	Colorado's 7th district	0.07403%	121	81789	In the first race in this newly created Congressional district, Republican Bob Beauprez narrowly beat out Democrat Mike Feeley.
1940		Canadian federal	Cumberland	0.07438%	12	8073	Liberal Percy Chapman Black defeated National Government incumbent Kenneth Judson Cochrane.
1923		United Kingdom general	Huddersfield	0.0746%	26		Labour Party candidate James Hudson defeated Liberal Party candidate Arthur Marshall 17,430–17,404. In the previous year's General Election, Marshall had narrowly beaten Hudson by a 0.5% margin.
1988		Canadian federal	Northumberland, Ontario	0.07533%	28	18600	Liberal candidate Christine Stewart narrowly edged out Progressive Conservative Reg Jewell.
2018		Florida general	Commissioner of Agriculture	0.07535%	6,753		After a recount, Democrat Nikki Fried defeated Republican Matt Caldwell.
1987		Virginia Senate	District 39	0.0755%	35		William C. Wampler Jr. defeated John S. Bundy by 32 votes and a December 15, 1987 recount widened the margin by 3 more votes.
2006		Canadian federal	Parry Sound—Muskoka	0.0756%	28	18513	Conservative candidate Tony Clement narrowly edged out Liberal MP Andy Mitchell.
1916		Arizona gubernatorial	Governor of Arizona	0.0766%	43		The initial count had Thomas Campbell up by 30 votes. George Hunt, the incumbent, contested; but before that could be settled his term expired. The courts then allowed Campbell to take office as de facto Governor in January 1917. After losing a case in the county court and winning at the state Supreme Court, Hunt became governor in December 1917, with the courts deciding he'd won by 43 votes. Had the initial count stood this race would have been even closer, with the margin just 0.0536%.
2010		Vermont House of Representatives	Rutland 5-4 District	0.0770%	1	650	After the initial count had Gale Courcelle up by 1, a recount took one vote away from Doug Gage. Subsequent action awarded it back.
1974		United States Senate	North Dakota	0.0771%	177		Five-term Republican U.S. Senator Milton Young defeated former Democratic Governor William Guy by 177 votes out of 237,000 cast.
1990		Massachusetts House of Representatives	7th Worcester	0.0780%	13		Democrat Paul Kollios defeated Independent Alan M. Tuttle.
1981		New Jersey gubernatorial	Governor of New Jersey	0.0784%	1,797		The results of the initial ballot counting was close with Kean leading Florio by 1,677 votes. A recount took place over the next month and Kean was certified the winner besting Florio by 1,797 votes out of over 2.3 million votes cast.
1922		United Kingdom general	South Shields	0.0794%	25		In this three-way race, Liberal Party candidate Edward Harney defeated Labour Party William Lawther 15,760–15,735.
2013		New Jersey General Assembly	District 2	0.07954%	40	25164	Democrat Vince Mazzeo defeated incumbent Republican John F. Amodeo after a recount.
1922		United Kingdom general	Derbyshire, North-Eastern	0.0802%	15		In this three-way race, Labour Party candidate Frank Lee defeated Liberal Party candidate Joseph Stanley Holmes 9,359–9,344.
1922		United States Senate	Delaware	0.0812%	60		Democratic attorney Thomas Bayard defeated appointed U.S. Senator T. Coleman DuPont by 60 votes out of 74K+ votes cast in a special election. Bayard simultaneously defeated DuPont by 0.43 points in the election to the seat for the unexpired six-year term.
1990		New Hampshire House of Representatives	Hillsborough 40 District	0.0818%	4		Robert Murphy defeated Kathleen Souza by 4 votes.
2018		Illinois House of Representatives	54th District	0.0823%	37		Tom Morrison defeated Maggie Trevor by 37 votes.
1922		United Kingdom general	Salford, North	0.0836%	19		In this three-way race, Labour Party incumbent Ben Tillett defeated Conservative Party challenger Samuel Finburgh 11,368–11,349. Tillett face Finbburgh again in the 1923 and 1924 General Elections, winning in 1923 but losing in 1924.
1972		Canadian federal	Selkirk	0.08400%	30	17872	New Democrat incumbent Doug Rowland defeated Progressive Conservative Dean Whiteway.
1966		Massachusetts House of Representatives	2nd Bristol	0.08436%	28		Democrat Edward P. Coury defeated fellow Democrat Ronald Anthony Pina.
1924		United States Senate	Iowa	0.08439%	755		Smith Brookhart won the election by 755 votes and was initially seated in the Senate without incident. After Brookhart was seated, Steck contested the election results. The investigation and recount took longer than a year, but on April 12, 1926 by a vote of 45–41, the Senate overturned the election results and gave the seat to Steck. This was the first tmie the Senate voted to overturn an election after the winner was seated. The recount was contentious with claims of fraud and destroyed ballots, and with the special subcommittee inspecting each discarded ballot to determine voter intent. In the end the fact that Democrats wanted Steck elected and Republicans wanted to punish Brookhart for failing to support Coolidge, partisan politics likely did him in.
1974		Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Primary	41st Middlesex	0.08443%	3	1778	Frank A. Antonelli topped Joseph Whelan by 3 votes and then lost the general election. He would win the nomination two more times and seek it two more than that, but never win the seat.
2015		United Kingdom general	Gower	0.08518%	27	15862	Labour candidate Liz Evans was defeated by the Conservative Byron Davies by 27 votes, less than 0.1% of votes cast, which made it the most marginal Conservative seat going into the next election. Davies' victory brought 105 consecutive years of Labour representation to an end, but Labour won the seat back in the 2017 general election with a majority of 3,269.
1858		United States House of Representatives	New York's 9th District	0.0852%	13		Anti-Administration Democrat John B. Haskin defeated Democrat Gouverneur Kemble, 7,637–7,624. A third candidate Edward A. Andrews won 545 votes.
1998		Massachusetts House of Representatives	1st Plymouth	0.0858%	11		Republican Vinny M. deMacedo defeated Democrat Joseph R. Gallitano.
2018		Pakistani general	Kasur-IV	0.0860%	249		Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Talib Hassan Nakai defeated Pakistan Muslim League-N's Rana Muhammad Hayat 124,644-124,395.
1977		Vermont House of Representatives	Windham-4 District	0.087%	1	572	On election night, Democrat Robert Emond was declared the victor over incumbent Republican Sydney Nixon by one vote. Nixon then petitioned for a recount in Windham Superior Court under the provisions of 17 V.S.A. § 1361. The recount committee in that court found Nixon to be the winner by one vote and the court gave him a certificate of election. However, a House committee did its own recount and found Emond to be the winner by one vote. Rather than force the full House to vote on the recount report, Nixon simply resigned, thereby giving Emond the win.
2000		Canadian federal	Laval Centre	0.08851%	42	23746	Bloc Québécois MP Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral narrowly edged out Liberal Pierre Lafleur.
2012		French legislative	Eure second constituency	0.08928%	39	21860	Socialist Jean-Louis Destans defeated incumbent Jean-Pierre Nicolas
1846		United States House of Representatives	New Jersey's 3rd District	0.0895%	16		John Runk and Isaac G. Farlee 8,942–8,926 votes. There was a dispute over whether some 36 Princeton students' votes were legal. After some wrangling, the House narrowly voted to give Runk the seat.
1880		United States presidential	California	0.08960%	144	80426	Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock took advantage of the opposition to Chinese immigration for the first Democratic win in California since 1856, but narrowly lost the electoral vote and the popular vote to Garfield. The US presidential election is not decided by popular vote, but Garfield won the national popular vote by only 1,898 votes or 0.0213%.
1908		United States presidential	Missouri	0.09066%	629	347203	William Howard Taft wins a comfortable first term but takes Missouri by fewer than a thousand votes.
2000		United States Senate	Washington	0.09301%	2229	1199437	Democrat Maria Cantwell unseated Republican Slade Gorton following a mandatory recount.
1961		Virginia House of Delegates	District 66	0.0932%	5		James B. Fugate defeated Dr. Conley E. Greear. The initial count showed the two tied. But two recounts put Fugate up by 5.
1874		Canadian federal	Leeds South	0.09372%	3	1602	Conservative David Ford Jones beat challenger W. H. Fredenburgh.
1848		United States House of Representatives	Ohio's 10th District	0.0947%	16		Democrat Charles Sweetzer defeated Whig Daniel Duncan 8,454–8,438.
1962		Canadian federal	St. John's West	0.09495%	24	12650	Liberal Richard Cashin defeated Progressive Conservative incumbent William Joseph Browne.
1857		United States House of Representatives	Connecticut's 4th District	0.0953%	16		Democrat William D. Bishop defeated a Republican named Orris S. Ferry 8403–8387.
1923		United Kingdom general	Hertfordshire, Hemel Hempstead	0.0956%	17		Liberal Party challenger John Freeman Dunn defeated Conservative Party incumbent J C C Davidson 8,892–8,875. Dunn would regain the seat in 1924.
1922		United Kingdom general	Nottingham, Central	0.0959%	22		Liberal Party candidate Reginald Berkeley defeated Conservative Party incumbent Albert Atkey 11,481–11,459. Berkeley was later and briefly a Hollywood screenwriter.
1998		United States Senate	Nevada	0.09620%	401	208621	Incumbent Democrat Harry Reid defeated Republican John Ensign.
1986		Vermont House of Representatives	Chittenden 7-4 District	0.09625%	1	520	Ben Truman defeated Terry Bouricius by 1 vote. Bouricious would win a 1990 rematch by 54 votes.
2000		Montana Democratic Primary	Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction	0.09650%	61		In this 3-way race, the initial tally for Linda McCulloch, Gail Gray, and Mike Schwinden was 31,572–31,508–28,739. Gray requested a recount and McCulloch still won by 61 votes: 31,634–31,573–28,765 votes. McCulloch would also go on to win the general election.
1839		United States House of Representatives	Virginia's 15th District	0.09652%	4		Democrat William Lucas defeated Whig Richard Barton 2,074–2,070.
1984		Canadian federal	Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke	0.09752%	38	19502	Liberal MP Len Hopkins narrowly edged out Progressive Conservative Don Whillans.
2002		Massachusetts House of Representatives	3rd Barnstable	0.0983%	17		Democrat Matthew C. Patrick defeated Republican Larry F. Wheatley.
1878		Canadian federal	Jacques Cartier	0.09911%	2	1010	Conservative Désiré Girouard defeated Liberal incumbent Rodolphe Laflamme.
1852		United States House of Representatives	New York's 26th District	0.09956%	17		Democrat Andrew Oliver defeated a Whig candidate named Woods 8,546–8,529.
2017		French legislative	Loire's 1st constituency	0.09972%	23	11544	Régis Juanico of the Socialist Party, a supporter of Benoît Hamon, held onto his seat narrowly against Magalie Viallon, candidate of La République En Marche!.

Distribution of elections by winning margin