Vote Share
The percentage of total valid votes polled that a candidate or party receives.
Short answer
What is Vote Share?
Vote share expresses a candidate’s or party’s votes as a percentage of total valid votes polled. It is the standard basis for comparing performance across elections, because raw vote counts are affected by changes in electorate size and turnout.
Definition
Vote share expresses a candidate’s or party’s votes as a percentage of total valid votes polled. It is the standard basis for comparing performance across elections, because raw vote counts are affected by changes in electorate size and turnout.
Why It Matters
Vote share, not seat count, is the honest measure of whether support actually grew. In first-past-the-post contests, a modest vote share change can produce a dramatic seat swing, and a party can increase its vote share while losing seats.
Example in Indian Elections
A campaign reporting a vote share increase alongside a loss has genuinely built support; one reporting a win on a falling vote share has usually benefited from opposition fragmentation rather than its own performance.
Related Terms
- SwingThe change in vote share between two elections, measuring movement of support.
- Stratified SamplingDividing a population into groups and sampling proportionately from each.
- Turnout PropensityThe modelled likelihood that a given voter will actually vote.
- Cross-TabulationBreaking survey results down by demographic or behavioural subgroups.
- Sampling Error / Margin of ErrorThe uncertainty inherent in estimating a population from a sample.
- Back-CheckRe-contacting a share of survey respondents to verify enumerator honesty.