After last week’s post on cost per vote figures last week, I decided to keep the ball rolling. Here are some more figures, compiled from various sources.
US Presidential Elections 2012
The Cato institute estimates that, in the general election, the Obama and Romney campaigns directly outlaid $10.37 per vote received and $7.11 per vote received, respectively. Factoring in allied spending, these figures rise to $16.73 per vote received and $20.09 per vote, respectively.
Scottish Independence Referendum 2014
The BBC reports that a total of £6.7m was spent by campaign groups in the lead up to the referendum. Around 3,620,000 people cast ballots. The spending per vote here pencils out to around £1.80 per vote (around US $2.61 per vote).
Indian General Election 2014
Quartz reports that 540 million voters turned out for the election. Spending was estimated around US$5 billion. Thus, election spending was around $9.26 per vote.
Chicago Mayoral Election 2015
In this run-off election, Incumbent democrat Rahm Emanuel ran against fellow a fellow democrat, Jesús “Chuy” García. The Chicago Tribune estimates that expenditures of Emanuel’s campaign and its allies topped $22.8 million. Garcia and allies spent only around $4.6 million, according to the Tribune. A total of 573,524 votes were split between the two candidates; Emanuel received 319,543 and Garcia received 253,981. Thus, their expenditures per vote pencil out to $71.35 per vote for Emanuel and $18.11 per vote for Garcia. Net, around $47.77 was spent per vote cast.