US Election Recount Statistics 2026 | Close Races, Recount Margins, Audits & State Rules

US Election Recount Statistics show that recounts almost never change a winner: FairVote counted 37 complete statewide recounts in 7,437 statewide general elections from 2000 to 2025, and only 3 reversed the result. The 2026 midterms produced new close-race tests, including a 1,138-vote Mississippi Senate margin with no recount law and a 0.46-point Florida House race headed for an automatic recount.

US Election Recount 2026 – Introduction

US Election Recount Statistics matter most when a race lands within a few hundred votes, and the 2026 midterms produced several of those. Democrats won control of Congress on November 3, but a handful of contests stayed open after Election Day. Mississippi’s Senate race sits about 1,138 votes apart. Alaska’s Senate race sits 637 votes apart. Florida’s 27th District sits 1,116 votes apart. Each state handles a close margin under different rules, and one state has no recount law at all.

This report pulls together the long-run recount record, the state-by-state trigger rules and the live 2026 cases. Numbers come from FairVote, state election offices, the National Conference of State Legislatures and election-night coverage from November 3 to 5, 2026. Several counts were still moving when this report was written, so the tables flag unofficial figures. Recount outcomes depend on final certified totals.

Interesting Facts About US Election Recount

STATEWIDE RECOUNTS VS ELECTIONS, 2000-2025

Statewide general elections | ████████████████████████████████████████ 7,437
Complete statewide recounts | █ 37
Outcome reversals           | ▏ 3

Source: FairVote statewide recount analysis, 2000-2025; Associated Press and NBC News results, November 3-5, 2026; National Conference of State Legislatures.

The table shows how rare a changed result is. A recount happened in about 0.5% of statewide general elections over 25 years, and only 3 of those recounts flipped the winner. That works out to one reversal in every 2,479 statewide elections. The 536-vote average shift equals 0.03% of the vote, which is too small to move any race decided by more than a few hundred ballots.

The 2026 numbers fit that pattern. The Mississippi, Florida and Alaska margins all exceed the 536-vote average shift. Mississippi’s gap is more than 2 times larger, and Florida’s is more than 2 times larger. None of those races is safe from a swing, but history says the leader at the end of the count usually stays the leader after a recount.

US Election Recount Frequency 2026: How Often Statewide Recounts Happen

COMPLETE STATEWIDE RECOUNTS BY FAIRVOTE REPORT WINDOW

2000-2009 | ██████████████████ 18
2000-2015 | ███████████████████████████ 27
2000-2019 | ███████████████████████████████ 31
2000-2022 | ██████████████████████████████████ 34
2000-2023 | ████████████████████████████████████ 36
2000-2025 | █████████████████████████████████████ 37

Source: FairVote, An Analysis of Statewide Election Recounts, editions covering 2000 through 2025.

Each new FairVote edition adds a few recounts, and the average shift settles near 550 votes. The count rose from 18 in the first decade to 37 by 2025. Recounts grew more common as more states adopted automatic triggers and as more races finished inside 1%. The 2000-2019 window recorded 31 recounts in 5,778 elections, a rate of 0.54%.

The average shift moved from 296 votes to 536 votes, but the share of the vote stayed near 0.03%. Larger electorates produce bigger vote swings in raw numbers and the same tiny percentage swing. A statewide race with 2 million ballots can shift by a thousand votes without changing the order of the candidates.

Recount Reversals 2026 Data: The Three Times a Recount Changed the Winner

INITIAL MARGIN OF REVERSED VS UPHELD RECOUNTS (% of vote)

Reversals (all 3)           | ██ below 0.06
Median of 34 upheld recounts| ██████ 0.18
FairVote suggested trigger  | ███ 0.10

Source: FairVote, An Analysis of Statewide Election Recounts, 2000-2025.

All 3 reversals came from races where the original gap stood below 0.06% of the vote cast for the top two candidates. The other 34 recounts had a median initial margin of 0.18%. No statewide recount has reversed an outcome since Minnesota’s 2008 Senate race, so a candidate trailing by 0.1% or more has little precedent to lean on.

FairVote recommends an automatic recount at a 0.1% margin, a line that captures all 3 reversals. Most of the 37 recounts fell outside that window and changed nothing. Pennsylvania’s 2021 statewide judicial recount shows the usual direction: it padded the winner’s margin by more than 5,500 votes across more than 2 million ballots, according to the Associated Press.

State Recount Law Thresholds 2026: Which States Trigger Automatic Recounts

AUTOMATIC RECOUNT TRIGGER TYPES (number of states named)

0.5% margin states     | ███████ 7
Tie-only states        | ██████ 6
No recount law         | █ 1

Source: Texas Tribune and Campaign Legal Center review of state recount laws; Yahoo News and National Conference of State Legislatures state summaries, November 2026.

Seven states order an automatic recount when the margin falls within 0.5%. Florida’s version has two stages: a machine recount at 0.5% or less and a manual recount at 0.25% or less. Colorado measures its 0.5% against the leading candidate’s vote total, not the total vote. One tracker also lists Vermont as a tie-only state, so counts of that group range from 6 to 7.

At the other end sits Mississippi, the only state with no recount law. In 26 states, a margin below a set percentage triggers an automatic recount, and states in the tie-only group require an exact tie. The gap between a 0.5% state and a tie-only state decides whether a race of 1,000 votes gets a second count or not.

Who Can Request a Recount in 2026: Texas, Kansas, Tennessee and Alaska Rules

CANDIDATE-REQUEST RULES (maximum losing margin that qualifies, %)

Texas   | ██████████ 10
Kansas  | no limit (candidate pays unless margin under 0.5)
Alaska  | no limit (candidate pays)

Source: Texas Tribune, KUT, Associated Press and WZTV state recount explainers, November 3-4, 2026.

Texas allows a request only when the loser trails by 10% or less of the total vote, and the candidate pays. Kansas has no automatic recounts but lets any candidate ask at any margin. The fee is waived if the margin falls under 0.5% or if the requesting candidate ends up the winner. Those rules matter in 2026 because Kansas elected a Democratic senator for the first time in decades.

Tennessee sits furthest from the automatic model. A close or uncalled race does not trigger a recount, and a court must order one after a challenge within 5 days of certification. A court can order a recount for a tie, suspected fraud or a machine problem, and any recount must cover all ballots cast.

Mississippi Senate Recount 2026: Colom vs Hyde-Smith Margin Without a Recount Law

MISSISSIPPI SENATE UNOFFICIAL COUNT (thousands)

Scott Colom (D)         | ████████████████████████████████████████████████ 464.9
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R)    | ████████████████████████████████████████████████ 463.8

Source: ABC News and Mississippi Secretary of State statements; Yahoo News and Democracy Docket reporting, November 4-5, 2026.

Mississippi’s Secretary of State told ABC News the state has no formal recount process. Candidates cannot request one and none is triggered automatically. Early tallies showed Colom ahead by 28, then 43, then 65 votes at about 96% counted. The latest unofficial gap of 1,138 votes appears in the table, and the Colom campaign says 10,000 to 15,000 affidavit ballots remain.

The fight would move to court. A candidate can sue to include or exclude specific ballots, but that would likely come after counties certify by November 13. Mail ballots must arrive by November 10, and voters must supply ID for affidavit ballots by the same day. Democrats hold the Senate majority without this seat, but a Colom win would be the party’s reddest pickup.

Florida District 27 Recount 2026: Salazar vs Rodriguez Margin and Timeline

FLORIDA CD-27 UNOFFICIAL COUNT (thousands)

Maria Elvira Salazar (R) | ████████████████████████████████████████████████ 124.5
Eliott Rodriguez (D)     | ███████████████████████████████████████████████ 123.4

Source: Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections, NBC News and WLRN reporting, November 4-5, 2026.

Florida’s 0.46-point margin sits inside the 0.5% machine-recount line. Miami-Dade’s elections supervisor said 202 mail ballots were still being cured and the canvassing board would reconvene on November 6. The Florida Secretary of State orders the recount, which cannot begin before November 7. Florida law requires an initial recount to finish by the ninth day after the election.

A manual recount only follows if the margin narrows to 0.25% or less, which would take a swing of roughly 500 votes. History puts that outcome at the edge of what recounts do, since the 536-vote average shift is similar. Rodriguez said he would not concede until the recount ends. A second Miami-Dade race, District 26, also stayed close between Mario Diaz-Balart and Nicole Locklin.

Alaska Senate Race 2026: Ranked-Choice Count and Tie-Only Recount Rule

ALASKA SENATE FIRST-CHOICE VOTES (thousands)

Mary Peltola (D)    | ██████████████████████████████████████████████ 102.9
Dan Sullivan (R)    | ██████████████████████████████████████████████ 102.3
Gerald Heikes (R)   | ██ 4.8
Daniel Sullivan (R) | ██ 3.6

Source: Alaska Division of Elections unofficial results as reported by NBC News, Alaska Beacon and Newsweek, November 4-5, 2026.

Alaska’s recount rule is narrow. A recount is automatic only in a tie, though a candidate may request one and pay for it. Neither candidate has 50% of first-choice votes, so the race goes to ranked-choice tabulation on November 18. Two minor candidates, Gerald Heikes with 4,846 votes and a second Dan Sullivan with 3,600, would be eliminated first.

An Alaska Beacon analysis found that redistributed votes could favor Sullivan by a few hundred votes. Officials said about 20,000 early votes and as many as 40,000 absentee ballots remained. The state plans count updates on November 10, 13 and 18. The 637-vote gap sits near the 536-vote average recount shift, so the ranked-choice count matters more than any later recount. A Peltola lead of that size could survive or vanish on redistributed ballots alone, which makes November 18 the date to watch.

Post-Election Audit Statistics 2026: Traditional Audits vs Risk-Limiting Audits

POST-ELECTION AUDIT TYPES BY NUMBER OF STATES

Traditional audits    | ████████████████████████████████████ 36
Risk-limiting audits  | ███████ 7
All 50 states require | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████ 50

Source: National Conference of State Legislatures, April 2026; Votebeat, November 3, 2026; Election Assistance Commission audit guidance.

Alabama’s law took effect on April 13, 2026, which made every state require a post-election audit. Traditional audits compare paper ballots with machine totals in selected machines or precincts, usually between 1% and 10%. Risk-limiting audits scale the sample to the margin, so a close race draws a larger check. Colorado ran the first one in 2017.

An audit differs from a recount. A recount recounts every ballot in one contest, while an audit samples ballots to test whether equipment and procedures worked. Ten states run audits after certification, and nine others do not specify timing. Texas enacted a 2021 law that moves the state toward risk-limiting audits in 2026, so watch for Texas audit reports after this cycle. Audit results often arrive weeks after Election Day, long after the recount debate peaks.

US Election Recount 2026: Frequently Asked Questions

How common are statewide recounts in the US?

Rare. FairVote counted 37 complete statewide recounts in 7,437 statewide general elections from 2000 to 2025, about 0.5%.

How often does a recount change the winner?

Only 3 of 37 statewide recounts changed the result: Washington governor in 2004, Vermont auditor in 2006 and Minnesota’s Senate race in 2008.

How many votes does a recount usually change?

An average of 536 votes between the top two candidates, or 0.03% of the vote, according to FairVote’s 2000-2025 analysis.

Is there a recount in the 2026 Mississippi Senate race?

No. Mississippi is the only state with no recount law. Candidates can go to court over specific ballots, likely after the November 13 county certification deadline.

Is Florida District 27 headed to a recount in 2026?

Yes, if the margin holds. Republican Maria Elvira Salazar led by 1,116 votes, or 0.46 points, inside Florida’s 0.5% automatic machine-recount line.

What margin triggers an automatic recount?

It varies. Seven states, including Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania, trigger one at 0.5% or less. Six states, including Texas and Alaska, require an exact tie.

Can a candidate request a recount in Texas?

Yes, if the candidate lost by 10% or less of the total vote. The candidate pays, and only an exact tie triggers one automatically.

Who pays for a recount in Kansas?

The requesting candidate pays, unless the margin is under 0.5% or the requester is declared the winner. Kansas has no automatic recounts.

What happens in a close Alaska race?

Alaska holds a recount automatically only in a tie. The Senate race goes to ranked-choice tabulation on November 18, with certification targeted for November 25.

What is a risk-limiting audit?

A sample-based audit that checks paper ballots against machine totals and scales the sample to the margin. 7 states require them, and Colorado ran the first in 2017.

Do all states audit election results?

Yes. All 50 states now require a post-election audit, and 36 use traditional audits.

What margin does FairVote recommend for automatic recounts?

0.1%. All 3 statewide reversals from 2000 to 2025 occurred below 0.06%.

Can the Associated Press call a race that is headed to a recount?

Yes. The Associated Press may declare a winner in a recount-eligible race if it determines the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

How long does a Florida recount take?

Florida requires the initial machine recount to finish by the ninth day after the election. For the 2026 general election, that deadline falls on November 12.

When does Mississippi certify its 2026 Senate result?

Counties must certify by November 13, and the Secretary of State declares the statewide result on December 3.

Why do recounts rarely help the trailing candidate?

FairVote found that recounts often widen the leader’s margin. The average shift of 536 votes is small, and only races inside 0.06% have ever flipped.

Are the 2026 recount numbers final?

No. Counts in Mississippi, Florida and Alaska are unofficial and changing until each state certifies results.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.