What confirmed instances of 2020 election misconduct were prosecuted, and how many votes did they involve?
Executive summary
Prosecutors pursued a small number of confirmed misconduct cases tied to the 2020 election — often local, individualized schemes involving a handful to dozens of ballots — and large-scale claims of coordinated, outcome-changing fraud were not borne out in courts or prosecutions [1] [2] [3]. Comprehensive reviews found under 475 potential instances flagged in six battleground states and hundreds of historical fraud convictions span decades, signaling rare but real instances that were far too few to change the election result [1] [4] [5].
1. Known prosecutable misconduct: dozens here, individual schemes there — not widespread theft
State and federal prosecutors did bring and win prosecutions for discrete schemes connected to the 2020 cycle — for example, a Justice Department prosecution involving Kim Phuong Taylor alleged she submitted “dozens” of fraudulent registrations and absentee ballots in Iowa in 2020 and was convicted for that conduct [6]. Across the board reporting and post‑election reviews, however, characterized these as isolated criminality rather than evidence of a systemic conspiracy to flip the presidential result [2] [3].
2. Aggregate counts: under 475 potential cases in targeted reviews, and most did not translate to charges
An Associated Press review, recapped by PBS, identified just shy of 475 potential cases of voter fraud across six battleground states out of more than 25 million votes cast; the project concluded those instances “would not have made a difference” in the outcome [1]. The AP/PBS accounting also shows many allegations were double votes or clerical anomalies that either led to no charges or small prosecutions, and in some jurisdictions prosecutors declined to pursue dozens of referrals after review [2].
3. Convictions and proven cases put the scale in perspective
Long‑term trackers and analyses report hundreds to low thousands of proven election‑fraud cases spread over many years: the Brookings summary cites 1,465 proven cases over decades, and a separate compilation counted 306 convictions across U.S. elections from 2016–2020 [5] [4]. Those totals encompass many election cycles and types of offenses — not a concentrated set of prosecutions that could plausibly have altered the 2020 presidential tally.
4. Litigation vs. criminal prosecutions: courts rejected broad fraud claims
Post‑election litigation mounted by the Trump campaign and allies produced numerous dismissals and withdrawals; judges found plaintiffs’ evidence often lacked specifics on locations, frequency, or names and therefore failed to demonstrate fraud or an erroneous count, and courts routinely rejected sweeping demands to throw out millions of ballots [3] [7] [8]. Those legal findings were independent of localized criminal probes and helped cement the legal record that no widespread, provable fraud altered certified outcomes.
5. High‑profile criminal cases about subversion are separate but relevant
Beyond small‑scale ballot tampering prosecutions, two major criminal actions filed after 2020 — Georgia’s racketeering indictment and the federal election‑obstruction case in D.C. — focus on efforts to overturn or subvert the 2020 certification rather than classic ballot‑stuffing; these prosecutions involve broad allegations about conduct intended to change the result, and they are being litigated as criminal matters [9]. These cases do not rest on a claim that thousands of illegal ballots were cast; rather, they allege schemes and actions to obstruct or corrupt the process.
6. Bottom line: prosecuted misconduct existed but was quantitatively trivial compared to total votes
The most rigorous post‑election reviews and prosecutions confirm that prosecutable misconduct linked to the 2020 vote occurred in isolated pockets — a few dozen ballots in specific schemes, a small number of prosecuted cases overall, and hundreds of potential incidents flagged across several states that largely did not scale up into charges — and in aggregate these instances were negligible relative to tens of millions of votes cast and could not plausibly have altered the presidential outcome [1] [2] [6].