It’s never too late to plan for 2026.
I created a Google spreadsheet many years ago to help me calculate the number of votes I need to win per precinct, based on a similar-turnout election, which usually is the election four years previously for the same or similar office. Even if it’s a race held every two years, the election from four years prior is often the better data to use as turnout is generally higher in a presidential election year as opposed to a non-presidential election year.
If you didn’t run for office, pick a candidate in a similar race and whose performance you expect to match, e.g., if you’re running for County Commission, pick a candidate similar to yourself that ran for that same office.
Instructions
You’ll need to pull together voter registration totals and election totals for the election for the office you’re running for from four years prior, as the turnout should be similar.
In this case, since this is for the 2026 election, you’ll need to pull information voter registration and turnout by precinct from 2022. This spreadsheet can calculate up to 61 precincts.
Only Three Columns to Calculate Your Vote Goals
The only columns you need to complete are columns B, C, and E – 2022 Number of Registered Voters (column B), 2022 Actual Number of Voters Who Voted (column C), and 2026 Number of Registered Voters (Update until “Close of Books”) (column E).
As you fill in the numbers, the spreadsheet will automatically update with total number of registered voters; the percentage turnout for the precincts and, by using the total at the bottom of the column, the district.
When you begin entering the data for the 2026 registered voters for the precincts, you’ll begin to see the impact of the precints on the vote total in Column I. Less populous precincts obviously have smaller impact on the vote total and more populous precincnts have a larger impact – this helps you visualize that data to see what precincts have larger impacts on your race.
Last – column J – Calculate the Number of Votes You Need to Win In Each Precinct – begins auto-completing based on your entries, giving you the number of votes you need to win in each precinct.
Incredibly easy!
You can view and download the 2026 vote goal Google toolkit.