Which states returned the most third party votes in the 2016 presidential election?

Question

I'm curious about which states in the 2016 US presidential election got the most third party votes. I want the top 5 states by percentage down to 1/10 of a percent that shows what the highest 3rd party voting rates are.

Answer 1

State-level result data from here shows that the top five states by percentage of third-party votes in the 2016 presidential election were Utah, Idaho, Vermont, Alaska, and New Mexico, with 27%, 13.25%, 13.05%, 12.17%, and 11.7% respectively. Below is a map showing the rest of the states - you'll probably have to zoom in to read the labels.

@PoloHoleSet also makes an interesting point that often, the only relevance that third-party votes have in the defacto two-party system of the US is whether they could have changed the result of the election - i.e. was the number of third-party votes greater than the margin of victory. To this end, I've created the visualisation below which presents the data in this context.

The states in which third-party voters would have changed the state winner, had they all voted for the candidate in second place, are Michigan, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, Florida, Maine, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Virginia, & North Carolina. In 2016, these states were represented in the electoral college by 108 Trump electors and 50 Clinton electors.

Full data:

State,Trump (R),Clinton (D),All Others,Total Vote,3rd Party %,% of Victory Margin
UT,515231,310676,305523,1131430,27.00%,149.36%
ID,409055,189765,91435,690255,13.25%,41.70%
VT,95369,178573,41125,315067,13.05%,49.43%
AK,163387,116454,38767,318608,12.17%,82.60%
NM,319667,385234,93418,798319,11.70%,142.48%
OR,782403,1002106,216827,2001336,10.83%,98.69%
WA,1221747,1742718,352554,3317019,10.63%,67.67%
WY,174419,55973,25457,255849,9.95%,21.49%
ND,216794,93758,33808,344360,9.82%,27.48%
MN,1322951,1367716,254146,2944813,8.63%,567.73%
CO,1202484,1338870,238893,2780247,8.59%,175.16%
MT,279240,177709,40198,497147,8.09%,39.59%
HI,128847,266891,33199,428937,7.74%,24.05%
NE,495961,284494,63772,844227,7.55%,30.16%
ME,335593,357735,54599,747927,7.30%,246.59%
KS,671018,427005,86379,1184402,7.29%,35.40%
MA,1090893,1995196,238957,3325046,7.19%,26.42%
IA,800983,653669,111379,1566031,7.11%,75.61%
SD,227721,117458,24914,370093,6.73%,22.60%
NH,345790,348526,49980,744296,6.72%,1826.75%
RI,180543,252525,31076,464144,6.70%,43.17%
CA,4483814,8753792,943998,14181604,6.66%,22.11%
NV,512058,539260,74067,1125385,6.58%,272.29%
WI,1405284,1382536,188330,2976150,6.33%,827.90%
AZ,1252401,1161167,159597,2573165,6.20%,174.93%
VA,1769443,1981473,233715,3984631,5.87%,110.23%
AR,684872,380494,65310,1130676,5.78%,21.46%
MD,943169,1677928,160349,2781446,5.76%,21.82%
OK,949136,420375,83481,1452992,5.75%,15.79%
IL,2146015,3090729,299680,5536424,5.41%,31.72%
IN,1557286,1033126,144546,2734958,5.29%,27.58%
MI,2279543,2268839,250902,4799284,5.23%,2344.00%
DE,185127,235603,23084,443814,5.20%,45.73%
MO,1594511,1071068,143026,2808605,5.09%,27.32%
WV,489371,188794,36258,714423,5.08%,12.06%
DC,12723,282830,15715,311268,5.05%,5.82%
KY,1202971,628854,92324,1924149,4.80%,16.08%
OH,2841005,2394164,261318,5496487,4.75%,58.48%
TN,1522925,870695,114407,2508027,4.56%,17.54%
TX,4685047,3877868,406311,8969226,4.53%,50.34%
CT,673215,897572,74133,1644920,4.51%,33.04%
NY,2819533,4556118,345791,7721442,4.48%,19.91%
SC,1155389,855373,92265,2103027,4.39%,30.75%
PA,2970733,2926441,268304,6165478,4.35%,605.76%
NC,2362631,2189316,189617,4741564,4.00%,109.41%
GA,2089104,1877963,147665,4114732,3.59%,69.94%
AL,1318255,729547,75570,2123372,3.56%,12.84%
LA,1178638,780154,70240,2029032,3.46%,17.63%
NJ,1601933,2148278,123835,3874046,3.20%,22.67%
FL,4617886,4504975,297178,9420039,3.15%,263.20%
MS,700714,485131,23512,1209357,1.94%,10.91%