The 2016 United States presidential election in Georgia was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016, as part of the 2016 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Georgia voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, businessman Donald Trump, and running mate Indiana Governor Mike Pence against the Democratic Party nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and her running mate Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. Georgia has 16 electoral votes in the Electoral College.
Trump won Georgia by 5.13%, a smaller margin than Mitt Romney's 7.82% in 2012 and even John McCain's 5.20% in 2008. Clinton received 45.3% of the vote, making this one of the few states where she outperformed Barack Obama in 2012. Trump's reduced margin of victory made Georgia one of eleven states (plus the District of Columbia) to vote more Democratic in 2016 than in 2012. This trend would continue into 2020, when Trump became the first Republican to lose Georgia since George H. W. Bush in 1992, though he won it back in 2024 by a 2.2% margin.
2016 was the last presidential election in which Georgia voted to the right of any of its neighboring states (Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina), particularly Florida and North Carolina. As of the 2024 presidential race, 2016 is the last time that Burke County voted Democratic, and the last time the Democratic presidential nominee won the nationwide popular vote without winning Georgia.
Primary elections Georgia held its presidential primaries on March 1, 2016.
Democratic primary
Four candidates appeared on the ballot:
Hillary Clinton Martin O'Malley (withdrew) Bernie Sanders Michael Steinberg
Republican primary
The 76 Republican delegates from Georgia were allocated in this way. There were 42 delegates allocated by congressional district; if a candidate received a majority of votes or they were the only candidate to receive at least 20% of the vote in a congressional district, they would receive the district's three delegates. If not, the candidate who won the plurality of the vote in a congressional district would receive two delegates, and the second-place finisher in the district would receive one delegate. There were also 34 at-large delegates; if a candidate got a majority of the vote or they were the only candidate to get the mandatory threshold to receive any delegates (begins at 20%, if no one gets at least 20%, then 15%, if no one gets 15%, then 10%), they would get all of the state's at-large delegates. If not, the delegates would be allocated proportionally among the candidates receiving at least the mandatory threshold.
Green convention On June 4, the Georgia Green Party held its state convention and presidential preference vote.
+ Georgia Green Party Convention, June 4, 2016 Candidate Votes Percentage National delegates Jill Stein - - 3William Kreml - - 1Sedinam Kinamo Christin Moyowasifza Curry - - -Kent Mesplay - - -Darryl Cherney - - - Total--4
General election
Predictions SourceRankingAs ofABC NewsNovember 7, 2016CNNNovember 4, 2016Cook Political ReportNovember 7, 2016Electoral-vote.comNovember 7, 2016Los Angeles TimesNovember 6, 2016NBCNovember 7, 2016RealClearPoliticsNovember 7, 2016 Rothenberg Political Report November 7, 2016Sabato's Crystal BallNovember 7, 2016
Polling
Throughout the campaign, Republican Donald Trump won the vast majority of pre-election polls. The average of the last three polls showed Trump leading Hillary Clinton 50% to 46%, which was accurate compared to the results.
Results The voting age population was 7,168,068, of which 5,443,046, were registered to vote. Turnout for the presidential election was 4,146,825, which is 57.85% of the voting age population and 76.19% of registered voters.
Seventeen candidates received write-in votes, of which the large plurality (13,017) went to Evan McMullin.
+ 2016 United States presidential election in GeorgiaPartyCandidateRunning mateVotesPercentageElectoral votesRepublican Donald Trump Mike Pence2,089,10450.77%16Democratic Hillary Clinton Tim Kaine 1,877,963 45.64% 0Libertarian Gary Johnson William Weld 125,306 3.05% 0 Independent Evan McMullin (write-in) Nathan Johnson 13,017 0.32% 0 Green Jill Stein (write-in) Ajamu Baraka 7,674 0.19% 0 Constitution Darrell Castle (write-in) Scott Bradley 1,110 0.03% 0 Others / Write-In Votes 558 0% 0Totals4,114,732100.00%16 Source: Federal Elections Commission
By county