Quick Facts:
- There have been 306 convictions for voter fraud that occurred in US elections from 2016 to 2020. Of the 151 convictions related to a presidential or congressional race: 146 cases involved one vote, three cases had seven votes or less, and two cases had an unknown number of votes.
- Republicans filed 82 post-2020 election lawsuits, resulting in four wins and one partial win. Two of the wins had batches of 270 and 216 provisional ballots excluded in Pennsylvania, while the partial win led to certain provisional ballots being set aside. Five post-election lawsuits were filed against Republicans; one is a loss and four are pending.
- 34 U.S. Senators and 165 U.S. Representatives made statements that could be viewed as undermining the credibility of the election. To date, no claims that voter fraud impacted the outcome of the election have been proven true.
- From 2012 through 2021, Donald Trump made over 900 claims about rigged or stolen elections.
- Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin held 2020 election recounts or audits beyond the scope of traditional audits that many states conduct following all elections.
- As a result of recounts, Joe Biden’s margin of victory increased in Arizona by 360 votes and in Wisconsin by 87 votes, and decreased in Georgia by 891 votes. The change in votes is not known for Texas; Pennsylvania audit results are pending as of June 6, 2022.
- Conservative former senators and judges examined 64 cases alleging 187 counts of voter fraud, irregularities, corruption, or procedural deficiencies. All claims of fraud and miscount failed in the courts.
- At the time of the 2020 election, anyone could return a mail-ballot for a voter in 25 states and Washington, DC. In 11 states, only certain people such as a family member or caregiver could do so. According to Reuters, FactCheck.org, NPR, and other fact checkers, there is no evidence to support the claim in the film 2000 Mules that 400,000 ballots were fraudulently harvested.
Voting and the belief in the fairness of our election system are fundamental to our democracy. This website provides non-partisan, unbiased information gathered by A-Mark researchers on the fairness of the 2020 presidential election.
We hope the categories listed below will help you decide for yourself whether the 2020 general election was fair or stolen. In other words, would Donald Trump have won the election if not for alleged fraud?
1. How many people have been convicted of voter fraud in the 2016-2020 elections?
Since 2012, Donald Trump and many other Republicans have claimed there was substantial voter fraud in US elections. Today, 67% of Republicans say that President Joe Biden was not the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election.[1]Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus, and Jennifer De Pinto, “Republicans weigh in on Liz Cheney and direction of GOP — CBS News poll,” cbsnews.com, May 16, 2021 Trump and others have claimed that if not for election fraud, Trump would have won the popular vote in the 2016 election — he lost by 2,868,686 million votes — and would have won the 2020 election — which he lost by 7,052,770 million votes — and be president today.[2]Federal Election Commission, “Official 2020 Presidential General Election Results,” fec.gov (accessed June 14, 2022) and Federal Election Commission, “Federal Elections 2016 Election Results … Continue reading
Our comprehensive review found a total of 306 voter fraud convictions in 37 states, covering all elections between 2016 and 2020. Of these, 151 convictions related to a presidential or congressional race: 146 cases involved one vote, three cases had seven votes or less, and two cases had an unknown number of votes.
The political affiliations are known for 170 defendants: 39.4% of those convicted were Democrats and 41.1% were Republicans, while the remainder were Independent, nonpartisan, or unaffiliated.
See our complete list of election and voter fraud convictions from 2016 to 2020 for more details.
2. How many lawsuits challenging the 2020 election were successful?
Of the 82 voting-related litigation cases filed by President Donald Trump and others following the 2020 election, four are considered wins and one is a partial win.
The cases were filed in 12 different states and Washington, DC, including the so-called “battleground states” of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The cases were decided by various of judges across the political spectrum who were either voted into office by the public or appointed by a mix of Democrats and Republicans, including Trump himself.
We found five post-election lawsuits filed against Republicans. Three were filed by Democrats, and the political affiliation of the other two suits is unknown. One is considered a loss, and the other four are pending as of May 12, 2022.
3. Which senators and representatives made statements challenging the integrity of the 2020 election?
At leases 34 U.S. senators made statements that could be viewed as seeking to undermine the credibility of the 2020 presidential election. Some statements directly questioned the legitimacy of the election, such as accusing Democrats of “dirty tricks” or stating that dead people and nonresidents voted in swing states, while others appear innocuous but could suggest an illegitimate result, such as “legal votes should be counted, illegal votes should not.”
On the House side, 165 representatives challenged the election either directly, by claiming issues such as “corrupted election technology, illegal counting practices, [and] dead voters,” or indirectly, with remarks such as “make sure only all legal votes are counted.”
On January 6, 2021, eight senators and 139 representatives voted against certifying the electoral votes in Arizona, Pennsylvania, or both.
4. What claims has Trump made about rigged elections during the last 10 years?
Many people are only aware of Donald Trump’s complaints about the outcomes of the 2016 and 2020 elections. However, Trump began complaining about elections as early as October 16, 2012.
This section contains a catalog of 905 statements from Donald Trump claiming that US elections were rigged or stolen made from October 2012 to November 3, 2021.
5. What were the results of 2020 election recounts and audits?
Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin held recounts or audits of the 2020 election beyond the scope of traditional audits that many states conduct following all elections. The recounts or audits in four states confirmed the initial election outcome, while the Pennsylvania audit results are not publicly available as of June 6, 2022.
6. What is the conservative case against election fraud?
Former Republican Senators John Danforth and Gordon H. Smith, among other political conservatives, investigated 64 lawsuits alleging 187 counts of election fraud. Their July 2022 report, “Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election,” determined that Joe Biden unequivocally won the 2020 presidential election.
7. Did ballot harvesting account for substantial fraud in the election?
“Ballot harvesting” originated as a partisan term referring to the collection of completed absentee or mail-in ballots by a person or group who return the ballots on behalf of the voters. The 2022 film 2000 Mules claimed that 400,000 ballots were illegally harvested in five states that went to Joe Biden, but independent fact checkers have disputed the movie’s claims based on the evidence presented.
8. What is the status of defamation lawsuits filed by voting machine companies against Trump allies and conservative media?
Donald Trump and his supporters have claimed (directly and indirectly) that some voting machine manufacturers changed or tried to influence the vote in the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.
In response, two voting machine companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, along with one former Dominion employee, filed 16 defamation lawsuits against some of those who publicly accused them of committing fraud in the 2020 election. There are also six countersuits filed by Sidney Powell, Mike Lindell, My Pillow, Herring Networks, Fox News and Newsmax.
Donald Trump has spoken about voting machine fraud and “glitches” in the 2020 election at least 46 times.
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References
| ↑1 | Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus, and Jennifer De Pinto, “Republicans weigh in on Liz Cheney and direction of GOP — CBS News poll,” cbsnews.com, May 16, 2021 |
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| ↑2 | Federal Election Commission, “Official 2020 Presidential General Election Results,” fec.gov (accessed June 14, 2022) and Federal Election Commission, “Federal Elections 2016 Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives,” fec.gov (accessed June 20, 2022) |