2020 Election Recounts and Audits

^{Last updated August 2022}

In November 2020, 43 states allowed for requested recounts under various conditions, such as a specific margin of victory. Some states allow for partial recounts. In Wisconsin, for example, the Trump campaign requested recounts in two specific counties following the 2020 election.^[3]Ballotpedia, “Election Recount Laws and Procedures in the 50 States, 2020,” ballotpedia.com (accessed May 31, 2022)

Recounts occurred in 31 of the 5,778 statewide elections held between 2000 and 2019. The outcome of a race was overturned by a recount just three times, with all three instances in elections that had a margin of victory less than 0.05%.^[4]FairVote, “Election Recounts Rarely Change the Outcome,” FairVote.org, November 4, 2020 The overturned results were for Governor of Washington in 2004, state auditor in Vermont in 2006, and a US Senate seat for Minnesota in 2008.^[5]FairVote, “A Survey and Analysis of Statewide Election Recounts,” fairvote.app.box.com, November 2020

II. What Are Audits?

An election audit is usually a routine check of the results for accuracy or a review of the procedures or equipment used in the election.^[6]Andrew Seidman and Jonathan Lai, “What to Know About Pennsylvania Republicans’ Investigation of the 2020 election,” inquirer.com, October 15, 2021 Reviews of a random sample of ballots cast on a voting machine can be done by hand or by running the ballots through the machine again to check that the reported results were accurate.^[7]Verified Voting, “Audits vs. Recounts: What’s the Difference?, verifiedvoting.org, November 18, 2020

Routine post-election audits are required by law in 34 states and DC.^[8]National Conference of State Legislatures, “Post-Election Audits,” ncsl.org, April 1, 2022 Various states have been testing a new form of audit called “risk-limiting audit” (RLA) since 2008.

According to the organization Verified Voting, an RLA “is a post-election audit which gives statistical evidence that the machine-tabulated results are consistent with what a full hand count of ballots would reveal. Unlike fixed percentage audits, an RLA limits the risk that the wrong election result will be certified because of a tabulation error.”^[9]Verified Voting, “What Is a Risk-Limiting Audit?,” verifiedvoting.org, May 2020

Republican-led audits following the 2020 election sometimes used the term “full forensic audit.” The term does not have a specific definition in the context of elections, but became more popular following the Arizona GOP-led investigation starting in late 2020.^[10]Andrew Seidman and Jonathan Lai, “All eyes turn to Pennsylvania After Arizona’s ‘Audit’ Affirmed Biden’s Presidential Victory,” mcall.com, September 24, 2021 The charts below use the term to indicate what the organizers called the process.

III. 2020 Election Recounts and Audits in Five States

A. State	B. Initial Results	C. Initial Margin of Victory (%)	D. Type of Audit/Recount	E. Audit/Recount Results	F. Audit/Recount Margin of Victory (%)	G. Initial Results Confirmed?
1. Arizona Republican Senators’ Full Forensic Audit of Maricopa County	Biden: 1,040,774 Trump: 995,665	Biden won Maricopa County by 45,109 votes (2.22%)	Maricopa County Audit	Biden: 1,040,873 Trump: 995,404	Biden won by 45,469 votes (2.23%) – net increase of 360 votes	Yes
2. Georgia Risk-Limiting Audit	Biden: 2,473,383 Trump: 2,459,825	Biden won Georgia by 13,558 votes (0.27%)	Statewide Audit (hand recount)	Biden: 2,475,141 Trump: 2,462,857	Biden won by 12,284 votes (0.25%) – net decrease of 1,274 votes	Yes
3. Georgia Trump-Requested Recount	Biden: 2,474,507 Trump: 2,461,837	Biden won Georgia by 12,670 votes (0.26%)	Statewide Recount (machine tally)	Biden: 2,473,633 Trump: 2,461,854	Biden won by 11,779 votes (0.24%) – net decrease of 891 votes	Yes
4. Pennsylvania Republican Senators’ Forensic Audit	Biden: 3,459,923 Trump: 3,378,263	Biden won Pennsylvania by 81,660 votes (1.19%)	Statewide Audit	See entry below for details	See entry below for details	Unknown
5. Texas Secretary of State Full Forensic Audit	Biden: 5,259,126 Trump: 5,890,347	Trump won Texas by 631,221 votes (5.66%)	Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin Counties Audit	See entry below for details	See entry below for details	Yes
6. Wisconsin Trump-Requested Partial Recount	Biden: 1,630,673 Trump: 1,610,065	Biden won Wisconsin by 20,608 votes (0.64%)	Recount in Two Counties	Biden: 1,630,866 Trump: 1,610,184	Biden won by 20,682 votes (0.64%) – net increase of 74 votes	Yes
6a. Wisconsin (Dane County)	Biden: 260,185 Trump: 78,800	Biden won Dane County by 181,385 votes (53.51%)	Dane County Recount	Biden: 260,094 Trump: 78,754	Biden won by 181,340 votes (53.52%) – net decrease of 45 votes	Yes
6b. Wisconsin (Milwaukee County)	Biden: 317,270 Trump: 134,357	Biden won Milwaukee County by 182,913 votes (40.50%)	Milwaukee County Recount	Biden: 317,527 Trump: 134,482	Biden won by 183,045 votes (40.5%) – net increase of 132 votes	Yes

1. Arizona – Maricopa County Full Forensic Audit (Completed September 24, 2021)

Biden defeated Trump by 10,457 votes in Arizona, a 0.31% margin.^[11]New York Times, “Arizona Election Results,” nytimes.com (accessed June 3, 2022) In Maricopa County, the biggest county in Arizona and fourth-largest in the nation, Biden won by 45,109 votes (2.22% margin).^[12]Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, “Quick Facts About Maricopa County,” mcso.org (accessed June 3, 2022)^[13]Maricopa County Elections Department, “November General Election Canvass,” recorder.maricopa.gov, November 3, 2020

In March 2021, Arizona’s Republican-led Senate hired a company called Cyber Ninjas to perform what it called a “full forensic audit” of the Maricopa County’s 2020 election results, including a hand recount of the 2,089,563 ballots cast.^[14]Arizona Senate Republicans, Arizona Senate Hires Auditor to Review 2020 Election in Maricopa County,” azsenaterepublicans.com, March 31, 2021 The audit cost an estimated $5.7 million, paid for by several pro-Trump groups.^[15]Jerod MacDonald-Evoy, “Who Are the Groups Who Paid to ‘Audit’ the Arizona Election?,” azmirror.com, August 2, 2021

The Cyber Ninjas September 24, 2021, report showed that Biden gained 99 votes while Trump lost 261, a net increase of 360 votes for Biden’s margin of victory. The audit changed the margin of victory from 2.22% to 2.23%, and confirmed Biden’s victory in the county.^[16]Cyber Ninjas, “Maricopa County Forensic Election Audit Volume III: Result Details,” azsenaterepublicans.com, September 24, 2021

Despite the outcome of the hand recount, Trump claimed that the report proved the existence of fraud in the election because, he said, the “report conclusively shows there were enough fraudulent votes, mystery votes, and fake votes to change the outcome of the election 4 or 5 times over.”^[17]Donald Trump, “Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America,” donaldjtrump.com, September 24, 2021 The Maricopa County Elections Department released a rebuttal to these claims, stating that the Cyber Ninjas report displayed “faulty analysis, inaccurate claims, misleading conclusions, and a lack of understanding of federal and state election laws.”^[18]Maricopa County Elections Department, “Correcting the Record,” recorder.maricopa.gov, January 2022

On August 1, 2022, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich wrote in a letter to state Senate President Karen Fann, “We received numerous complaints regarding allegations of dead voters during the 2020 elections, including those presented to us by you on September 24, 2021, following the completion of the Cyber Ninjas’ audit. This specific complaint alleged that 282 individuals who were deceased prior to October 5, 2020, voted in the November 3, 2020 general election. After spending hundreds of hours reviewing these allegations, our investigators were able to determine that only one of the 282 individuals on the list was deceased at the time of the election. … Some [claims] were so absurd the names and birthdates didn’t even match the deceased, and others included dates of death after the election.”

2. Georgia – Statewide Risk-Limiting Audit (Completed November 19, 2020)

A 2019 law led to the Georgia State Election Board’s 2020 rule requiring a risk-limiting audit following November general elections in even-numbered years prior to certifying the results.^[19]Verified Voting, “Georgia Audit Laws,” verifiedvoting.org (accessed June 2, 2022) For the 2020 election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called it “an audit, a recount and a recanvass all at once.” While the audit was required by law, he called for the recount due to the close margins of the results.^[20]Stephen Fowler, “Georgia To Conduct Hand Recount In Razor-Thin Presidential Race,” gpb.org, November 11, 2020 Georgia manually recounted the state’s approximately 5 million votes in the 2020 presidential election.

Biden gained 1,758 votes while Trump gained 3,032, a net decrease of 1,274 votes for Biden’s margin of victory. The audit changed the margin of victory from 0.27% to 0.25%, but confirmed Biden’s victory in the state.^[21]Josh Holder and Amy Schoenfeld Walker, “Where Georgia’s Hand Recount Differed From the Initial Tally, by County,” nytimes.com, November 19, 2020

3. Georgia – Statewide Trump-Requested Recount (Completed December 7, 2020)

Georgia law allows for candidates to request a recount after the voted are certified if the margin is less than 0.5%. This recount involves rescanning the paper ballots by machine. Results of a recount become the new official results.^[22]Katie Brumback, “Georgia Again Certifies Election Results Showing Biden Won,” apnews.com, December 7, 2020 It’s not clear why the initial counts dated November 20, 2020, are slightly different than the published risk-limiting audit results (shown above in rows 2 and 3), but the outcome is not impacted by the discrepancy.

Biden lost 874 votes while Trump gained 17, net decrease of 891 votes for Biden’s margin of victory. The recount changed the margin of victory from 0.26% to 0.24%, but confirmed Biden’s victory in the state.^[23]Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “November 3, 2020 Presidential Recount,” results.enr.clarityelections.com, December 7, 2020

4. Pennsylvania – Statewide Forensic Audit Investigation (Unresolved)

Pennsylvania law requires an automatic recount if the margin is 0.5% or less, but it was not triggered because Biden’s margin of victory was 1.19%.^[24]New York Times, “Pennsylvania Election Results,” nytimes.com (accessed June 3, 2022)

County election boards are required to review a random sample of 2% of all ballots or 2,000 ballots, whichever is smaller, to verify accuracy of the results. This process was completed after the 2020 election before the state certified its results.^[25]Andrew Seidman and Jonathan Lai, “What to Know About Pennsylvania Republicans’ Investigation of the 2020 election,” inquirer.com, October 15, 2021 In addition, 63 of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania conducted risk-limiting audits as part of a pilot program. According to then-Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, “The results of the sample mirrored the reported presidential election results across the participating counties within a fraction of a percentage point, providing confirmation of the accuracy of the vote count.”^[26]Pennsylvania Pressroom, “Risk-Limiting Audit Pilot Of November 2020 Presidential Election Finds Strong Evidence Of Accurate Count ,” media.pa.gov, February 5, 2021

Pennsylvania Senate Republicans called for further investigation into the election, which some Republicans are referring to as a “forensic audit.” In November 2021, state senate Republicans contracted a company called Envoy Sage to conduct the investigation at a cost to taxpayers of $270,250 with expected results in May 2022. Media outlets noted that details about the investigation were unclear and there was no guarantee that the results would be made public.^[27]Sam Dunklau, “Pa. Senate Election ‘Audit’ Contract Doesn’t Say If the Public Will See the Results,” whyy.org, December 7, 2021 In January 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court blocked the investigations’ planned inspection of Dominion voting machines in one county. That same month, a lower court allowed some subpoena’s of voters’ information to proceed but not others.^[28]Alison Durkee, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Blocks Voting Machine Inspection In GOP Election Audit,” forbes.com, January 14, 2022

No outcome is available as of June 3, 2022.

[Note: Results of an audit conducted in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, were released on February 19, 2021. In this county, Trump received 6,824 votes and Biden received 1,085 votes.^[29]Fulton County, “General Certificate of Result of All Votes Cast at the 2020 General Election November 3, 2020,” www.co.fulton.pa.us, November 20, 2020 The final report does not appear to contain updated vote totals for either candidate following the audit.]

5. Texas – Full Forensic Audit in Four Counties (Phase I Completed December 31, 2021)

Although he won the state by over five points, Trump called on Texas to audit its results in an open letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott on September 23, 2021. Within hours, the Texas secretary of state’s office announced an audit of what it called “Texas’ two largest Democrat counties and two largest Republican counties — Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin — for the 2020 election.”^[30]New York Times, “Texas Election Results,” nytimes.com (accessed June 3, 2022)^[31]Amy B. Wang, “Texas Secretary of State’s Office Announces Audit of 2020 Election Results After Trump Calls for One,” washingtonpost.com, September 23, 2021 In the 2020 election, Biden won Dallas, Harris, and Tarrant counties while Collin went to Trump.^[32]New York Times, “Texas Election Results,” nytimes.com (accessed June 3, 2022)

The audit had two phases planned: Testing Voting Machine Accuracy, Cybersecurity Assessments, and Identifying and Removing Ineligible Voters Who Cast Ballots in 2020 (Phase I) and Comprehensive Election Records Examination (Phase II).^[33]Texas Secretary of State, “Texas Secretary of State Full Forensic Audit of 2020 General Election,” sos.texas.gov, September 28, 2021 A report with Phase I results was released December 31, 2021, covering the audit of the 3,885,875 votes cast in Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin counties.

While the audit report did not list vote totals for Biden or Trump, the election results did not change. The audit found a total of 32 vote discrepancies in three of the four counties: 17 votes in Collin attributed to curbside voting machines that did not produce paper results and thus could not be hand-counted; 10 votes in Dallas resulting from a data entry error in the manual recount; and five votes in Harris due to an error in the manual counting of mail-in ballots. No discrepancies were found in Tarrant County.^[34]John B. Scott, “Phase 1 Progress Report: Full Forensic Audit of November 2020 General Election,” sos.texas.gov, December 31, 2021

6. Wisconsin – Trump-Requested Recount in Two Counties (Completed November 29, 2020)

Wisconsin law allows candidates to request a recount if the margin of victory is less than 1.0%. Biden’s margin over Trump was 0.64%, so the Trump campaign requested a recount in two Wisconsin counties, Dane and Milwaukee. The campaign had to pay the $3 million cost because the state only pays if the margin is less than or equal to 0.25% of the total vote.^[35]Associated Press, “Trump Pays $3 Million for Partial Wisconsin Vote Recount,” pbs.org, November 18, 2020^[36]Reuters, “Wisconsin Recount Would Cost Trump Campaign About $7.9 Million, State Officials Say,” reuters.com, November 16, 2020

The Dane County recount, completed on November 29, 2020, found that Biden lost 91 votes and Trump lost 46. Biden’s margin of victory was 53.52%, and the recount confirmed Biden’s victory in the county.^[37]Board of Canvassers for Milwaukee County, “Milwaukee County 2020 General Election,” county.milwaukee.gov, November 27, 2020^[38]Hailey Fuchs, “Recount in Two Wisconsin Counties Reinforces Biden’s Victory.,” nytimes.com, November 29, 2020

The Milwaukee County recount, completed on November 27, 2020, found that Biden gained 257 votes while Trump gained 125. Biden’s margin of victory remained at 40.50%, and the recount confirmed Biden’s victory in the county.^[39]Board of Canvassers for Milwaukee County, “Milwaukee County 2020 General Election,” county.milwaukee.gov, November 27, 2020

Biden gained 166 votes total in the two county recounts, while Trump gained 79, a net gain of 87 votes for Biden’s margin of victory. The recount left Biden’s margin of victory in the state at 0.64%, and confirmed Biden’s victory. It is not clear why the updated state results post-recount show a net increase of 74 votes for Biden rather than 87, but the outcome is not impacted by this discrepancy.^[40]Wisconsin Secretary of State, “Canvass Results for 2020 General Election,” elections.wi.gov, November 18, 2020 ^[41]Wisconsin Secretary of State, “WEC Canvass Reporting System County by County Report,” elections.wi.gov, November 30, 2020

IV. Summary of Recount and Audit Laws in Five States

A. State	B. Automatic Recount?	C. Candidate Requested Recount?	D. Who Pays for Requested Recount?	E. Audit Laws
1. Arizona	Yes – If the margin is 0.1% of the votes cast for both candidates	No – But a court may order one	Not allowed	Each county must conduct an audit of 2% of its precincts or two precincts, whichever is greater, as well as 1% of early votes or 5,000, whichever is less.
2. Georgia	No	Yes – Election officials may order one and candidates may request within 2 business days of election with a margin less than or equal to 0.5%	State	Requires a statewide risk-limiting audit of one contest following November general elections in even-numbered years.
3. Pennsylvania	Yes – If the margin is less than or equal to 0.5%	No – But voters may petition for a recount based on errors, and candidates may file a court appeal of canvassing returns	Requester	Each county board of elections is required to conduct a random statistical sample of at least 2% of the ballots cast or 2,000 ballots, whichever is less.
4. Texas	Only in the event of a tie	Yes – If the margin is less than 10% of the winning candidate’s vote total	Requester	Counties that use electronic voting systems must conduct a partial manual recount of at least 1% of election precincts or three precincts, whichever is greater. (A 2021 law created a risk-limiting audit pilot program starting November 2022.)
5. Wisconsin	No	Yes – If the margin is less than 1%	State if the margin is less than or equal to 0.25% of the total vote, otherwise the Requester	5% of statewide reporting units are randomly audited by hand count, including at least one audit in each county.