How many voter‑fraud convictions were specifically tied to the 2020 presidential race nationwide?
Executive summary
There is no single, authoritative nationwide tally in the provided reporting that counts only convictions exclusively tied to the 2020 presidential contest; the clearest compiled figure available in the sources is that 151 convictions from 2016–2020 were related to a presidential or congressional race, but that dataset does not isolate convictions solely for the 2020 presidential race [1] [2] [3]. Independent databases and scholars emphasize that the number of proven fraud convictions is very small relative to ballots cast and that most recorded convictions involved a handful of votes and did not change outcomes [4] [5].
1. What the available compilations actually measure — and their limits
A widely cited compilation hosted by the 2020Election project (archived by A-Mark) reports 306 voter‑fraud convictions across 37 states for elections between 2016 and 2020 and states that 151 of those convictions “related to a presidential or congressional race,” but the site’s methodology combines multiple election cycles and does not break out a definitive, nationwide count limited only to convictions that affected or were explicitly about the 2020 presidential contest [1] [2] [3]. That makes the 151 figure useful for context but insufficient to answer the narrower question — “how many convictions were specifically tied to the 2020 presidential race nationwide?” — because the compilation spans several years and race types and includes many single‑vote cases [1].
2. Federal examples and concrete 2020 convictions
The U.S. Department of Justice archived a specific federal conviction in Sioux City, Iowa, of a defendant convicted for a voter‑fraud scheme during the Iowa 2020 primary and general elections, showing that individual prosecutions tied directly to 2020 did occur and were pursued at the federal level [6]. Sources do not, however, assemble a nationwide list limited exclusively to prosecutions that prosecutors explicitly tied to the 2020 presidential contest and that resulted in convictions; reporting instead aggregates cases by election cycle or by type of office [6] [1].
3. Broader databases and why counts differ
Longstanding repositories like the Heritage Foundation’s Election Fraud Database compile thousands of instances across decades and report larger totals when a longer time frame is used; Newsweek summarized Heritage’s historical count as showing 1,325 convictions across many years [7] [8]. Academic and policy analyses warn that comparisons across different datasets are fraught: databases vary in inclusion criteria (attempts vs. convictions, local vs. federal cases, types of offenses), time windows, and whether convictions are linked to particular races — which explains divergent headline numbers [7] [4].
4. What scholars and policy analysts emphasize about impact
Scholars and neutral policy outlets underline two consistent points in the reporting: proven voter fraud in U.S. elections is rare, and the documented cases — including those aggregated around the 2016–2020 window — overwhelmingly involved tiny numbers of votes and did not change the outcomes of major races [4] [5]. The Brookings analysis used Heritage data to show the fraction of fraudulent votes is vanishingly small, and PNAS and other researchers found no convincing statistical evidence of widespread fraud that would alter the 2020 result [4] [5].
5. How to read competing agendas in the sources
Datasets and websites carry implicit agendas: the 2020Election archive frames its work as testing whether fraud could have altered presidential outcomes and therefore highlights cases connected to federal races [2]; Heritage’s map emphasizes proven instances over a long historical sweep, which critics say can give an impression of greater prevalence unless normalized to total votes cast [8] [4]. Major news outlets and scholarly journals stress that many lawsuits and claims about 2020 failed in court for lack of evidence, reinforcing the view that convictions tied to that contest were limited and isolated [9] [5].
6. Bottom line answer
The sources do not provide a definitive nationwide count limited strictly to convictions “specifically tied to the 2020 presidential race.” The best proximate figure in the provided reporting is that 151 convictions across 2016–2020 were related to presidential or congressional races (a dataset that includes, but does not isolate, 2020 presidential cases) [1] [2] [3]. Individual confirmed prosecutions tied to the 2020 election exist (for example, the Iowa federal conviction), but a single, authoritative nationwide tally of convictions solely for the 2020 presidential contest is not present in the supplied sources [6] [1].