Cast vote records: A database of ballots from the 2020 U.S. Election

TL;DR

This paper introduces a standardized, publicly available database of cast vote records from the 2020 U.S. Election, enabling detailed analysis of voting behavior and election administration across multiple states.

Contribution

It provides the first standardized, multi-state database of cast vote records from the 2020 U.S. Election, with extensive comparison to certified results.

Findings

1.9% of solid Republicans voted for Biden in battleground states.

1.2% of solid Democrats voted for Trump.

The database covers 42.7 million voters across 20 states.

Abstract

Ballots are the core records of elections. Electronic records of actual ballots cast (cast vote records) are available to the public in some jurisdictions. However, they have been released in a variety of formats and have not been independently evaluated. Here we introduce a database of cast vote records from the 2020 U.S. general election. We downloaded publicly available unstandardized cast vote records, standardized them into a multi-state database, and extensively compared their totals to certified election results. Our release includes vote records for President, Governor, U.S. Senate and House, and state upper and lower chambers -- covering 42.7 million voters in 20 states who voted for more than 2,204 candidates. This database serves as a uniquely granular administrative dataset for studying voting behavior and election administration. Using this data, we show that in battleground states, 1.9 percent of solid Republicans (as defined by their congressional and state legislative voting) in our database split their ticket for Joe Biden, while 1.2 percent of solid Democrats split their ticket for Donald Trump.