November 8, 2016 2020 → 55 0 61.73% 31.62% | Turnout 75.27% 8,753,788 4,483,810 Date 8 November 2016 | |
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Clinton
40-50%
50-60%
60-70%
70-80%
80-90% Trump
40-50%
50-60%
60-70%
70-80% | ||
The 2016 United States presidential election in California of November 8, 2016 was won by Democrat Hillary Clinton with a 61.7% majority of the popular vote, over Republican Donald Trump. California's 55 electoral votes were assigned to Clinton.
Contents
Primary elections
On June 7, 2016, in the presidential primaries, California voters expressed their preferences for the Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian, Peace and Freedom, and American Independent parties' respective nominees for President.
While California has had a top-two candidates open primary system since 2011, presidential primaries are still partisan races. Registered members of each party may only vote in their party's presidential primary. Unaffiliated voters may choose any one primary in which to vote, if the party allows such voters to participate. For 2016, the American Independent, Democratic and Libertarian, parties have chosen to allow voters registered with no party preference to request their respective party's presidential ballots.
Democratic primary
Seven candidates appeared on the Democratic presidential primary ballot:
Republican primary
Five candidates appeared on the Republican presidential primary ballot, four of whom had suspended their campaigns prior to the primary:
Trump, the only candidate with an active campaign, won each Congressional district by substantial margins, as well as all the statewide delegates, to capture all 172 votes.
Libertarian primary
Twelve candidates appeared on the Libertarian presidential primary ballot:
The primary took place after Gary Johnson won the Libertarian nomination at the Party's 2016 convention.
American Independent
The American Independent Party, a far-right and paleoconservative political party that formed when endorsing the candidacy of George Wallace in 1968 held a small presidential primary on June 7. It was won by attorney Alan Spears.
The American Independent Party nullified the results of this primary when they endorsed Donald Trump in August. The party indicated that Trump was a popular write-in choice during the primary, but was not allowed on the ballot because there was no evidence that Trump wanted the American Independent endorsement.
Results
Below is an official list of Recognized Write-in Candidates. California law only requires that 55 "electors" sign on to declare a person a write-in candidate, not that the person consent, according to a statement from the Secretary of State's Office.
Results by county
Final results by county certified December 16, 2016.
Analysis
California has voted Democratic in every presidential election after Republican George H.W. Bush won the state in 1988. Hillary Clinton easily continued the Democratic tradition in California, winning the state with 61.73% of the vote, Clinton's second highest vote percentage of any state, behind Hawaii. Donald Trump received 31.62% of the vote, a Democratic victory margin of 30.11 points. California was one of eleven states where Hillary Clinton performed stronger than President Obama in 2012, and contributed to Clinton's national popular vote victory.
The California state result was historically one of the most successful for the Democratic Party nominee by several measures. Hillary Clinton carried California by the largest margin of any Democratic candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt swept the state by 35.25% in his 1936 re-election landslide.
Clinton was also the first Democrat since 1936 to win traditionally Republican Orange County. The heavily and densely populated county won by the Democratic Party increasingly came to dominate urban areas and coastal California.
Clinton received nearly 72% of the vote in Los Angeles County, making her the first presidential candidate in history to receive over 70% of the vote in Los Angeles County, the most heavily populated county in the United States.
Election watcher Richard Winger said that California's Secretary of State made a technical error in assigning Electors to Trump, that could have made a difference in certain hypothetical electoral college outcomes, but in this case made no difference.