Glossary
| Wasted Vote Index: | |
Total: | Number of votes cast for losing candidates. |
R / D: | Percentages of votes for Republicans and Democrats that did not help to elect a candidate. |
| Drop-Off Voters: | Percentage of voters who participated in a statewide race but did not vote in a US House election. |
| Votes and Seats for: | Percentage of votes and seats won by Republicans, Democrats, and others; "O" refers to independent and third party candidates. |
| Seat Changes: | Number of districts that changed parties where an incumbent was defeated. |
| High/Low % Voter Turnout: | The congressional districts with the highest voter turnout in a state and the lowest voter turnout in a state. |
| Scale of Competitiveness: | |
Tight: | Won by 5% or less. |
Competitive: | Won by between 5% and 10%. |
Comfortable: | Won by between 10% and 20%. |
Landslide: | Won by between 20% and 40%. |
No Contest: | Won by at least 40%. |
Uncontested: | Won without major party opposition. |
| Untouchable: | Incumbents who won by landslides in the last two general elections. |
| Elected Women: | Measure of the number of women in a state's US House delegation. |
| Elected Minorities: | Measure of the number of representatives from a state who are Black (B), Latino (L), Asian (A), and American Indian (AI). |
| Democracy Index: | The democracy index measures a state’s average ranking in key categories: average margin of victory (measuring overall competitiveness), landslide index (measuring the number of somewhat competitive races), seats-to-votes distortion (measuring how well the intent of voters was reflected by the results), and representation index (weighted double, as it measures both voter participation and the percentage of effective votes that elect someone). |
| Average Margin of Victory: | The margin of victory index measures the winner’s percentage of all the votes cast minus the second-place candidate’s percentage of votes cast. |
| Seats-to-Votes Distortion: | The seats-to-votes distortion measures the extent to which one party wins a greater percentage of seats than votes and the other party wins a smaller percentage of seats than votes. The distortion is calculated by adding the percentage distortion for each party and then dividing by two. For example, if Democrats won 10% more seats than votes and Republicans won 6% fewer seats than votes, the distortion would be 8%. |
| Landslide Index: | The landslide index measures the percentage of all races won by a margin of victory of at least 20 percent. |
| Representation Index: | The representation index measures the percentage of eligible voters in a state who voted for the winning candidate in US House elections. The index is determined by multiplying the voter turnout in US House races by the percentage of votes cast for winning candidates. |
| Voter Turnout: | The voter turnout index measures the percentage of the voting eligible population who voted in a state’s US House elections (as opposed to statewide and presidential elections). We use population estimates by Professor Michael McDonald at George Mason University. His figures estimate the number of voting age adults who are eligible to vote, which means they exclude non-citizens and ex-felons in states that disenfranchise them. |