Ever since 1920, the Clerk of the U.S. House has published a booklet of election returns for federal office. The 2016 booklet is now published. The title is “Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 2016.” It is 85 pages.
It isn’t very useful for the presidential election. It does not name any presidential candidates; instead it reports the vote for president strictly by ballot label. Therefore, when two candidates both with the label “independent” are on the ballot in a state, it lumps their vote together. Also it has errors. It lumps most of the Louisiana presidential candidates together under the label “other.”
But, the booklet is very useful for the congressional election returns.
The Federal Election Commission always published a book of election returns that is more complete, accurate, and useful. However the FEC will not have its election returns book out until August 2017. It will be called “Federal Elections 2016.”
Congressional Quarterly publishes the most complete election returns. Its book will be called “America Votes 2016” or “America Votes Volume 32”. However it will not be in print until December 2017. It will contain maps of the congressional districts, and primary returns as well as general election returns, and will include gubernatorial election returns as well as federal office. It will have the statewide office vote by county, instead of just the state totals.
Just wondering. What if you want pre-1920 election information?
The best reference is Michael J. Dubin’s wonderful book “United States Congressional Elections 1788-1997”, which has the election returns for both houses of congress for the entire history of the U.S. since the constitution was adopted. It is one of my most important reference books. It lists every candidate who was on the ballot.
Guide to U.S. Elections, by Congressional Quarterly, also has congressional election returns back to the beginning, but unfortunately the book omits candidates who got less than 5% of the vote.