How many voter fraud prosecutions occurred after the 2020 election?
Executive summary
The most comprehensive public reporting found that formal referrals and investigations tied to alleged voter fraud after the 2020 election were very small in number and overwhelmingly declined by prosecutors — the Associated Press counted just under 475 potential cases across six key battleground states, a figure that would not have changed the outcome of the presidential race [1] [2]. Available state notices (for example Georgia’s referrals) and national research reinforce that rare, often isolated incidents account for the post‑2020 enforcement footprint rather than broad, coordinated prosecutions [3] [4].
1. The headline number: fewer than 475 potential cases in six battleground states
A large, multi‑reporter investigation by the Associated Press — corroborated in reporting by PBS and other outlets — concluded investigators and election officials identified just shy of 475 potential instances of voter fraud in the six battleground states most disputed after the 2020 election; AP’s reporting emphasized these were referrals or potential cases, not necessarily prosecutions, and that the total could not have affected the election outcome [1] [2]. Other aggregations and summaries have repeated that “fewer than 475” figure when describing post‑2020 scrutiny in those jurisdictions [5].
2. Distinguishing referrals, investigations and prosecutions
The reporting makes a clear separation between cases flagged by election officials and cases where prosecutors actually brought charges: AP’s count focuses on referrals for further review and potential investigations, and the bulletin-style state releases (for example Georgia’s summary) list matters bound over for prosecution but not the final tally of convictions or active indictments [1] [3]. National analyses from organizations such as the Brennan Center and Brookings stress that many alleged incidents turn out to be clerical errors, mistakes, or are declined by prosecutors — undercutting any claim of a wave of successful post‑2020 prosecutions [4] [6].
3. State examples: Georgia’s referrals and the limits of that signal
Georgia’s Secretary of State publicly described a handful of matters sent to prosecutors — including four instances involving felons voting or registering and four involving non‑citizens tied to the 2020 general election — but the Georgia release documents referrals rather than verdicts and explicitly notes that these incidents did not change election outcomes [3]. That state example illustrates how administrative findings feed prosecutorial review but do not equate to convictions or coordinated fraud.
4. Broader research: fraud is rare, and prosecutions even rarer
Longstanding research and databases tracked by academic and policy groups show that voter fraud is an infrequent phenomenon and prosecutions are a small slice of that already tiny universe; for example, Heritage and Brookings analyses and Brennan Center reports find only dozens of historic cases across many years in heavily watched states, underscoring that post‑2020 prosecutions were limited in scale compared with the tens of millions of ballots cast [6] [7] [4].
5. What the numbers do and don’t prove — and why narratives diverge
The factual record in mainstream reporting supports two concurrent truths: isolated illegal votes and administrative irregularities were identified and occasionally referred to prosecutors after 2020, but their number was small and prosecutors frequently declined to pursue charges so they could not have flipped the election [1] [2]. Political actors and media outlets have incentives to amplify either the existence of any fraud (to justify reforms or delegitimize outcomes) or its absence (to defend election integrity), which explains how identical data produce divergent narratives [8] [4].
6. Limits of the public record and final answer
Public reporting reliably establishes that the AP’s “just under 475 potential cases” in six battleground states is the best available, repeatedly cited benchmark for post‑2020 referrals and potential prosecutions, and that many of those referrals did not become prosecutions — but the sources do not provide a single, definitive nationwide count of actual prosecutions initiated and concluded after the 2020 election, nor a full tally of convictions across all jurisdictions [1] [2] [3]. Absent a consolidated federal or state‑by‑state compilation of final prosecutorial outcomes, the best-supported conclusion from the reporting is: referrals and potential cases numbered in the low hundreds in key states, prosecutions were far fewer, and convictions — rarer still [1] [4].