Who used the auto pen the most?
Executive summary
The historical record shows Thomas Jefferson was the earliest and most conspicuous early adopter of signature-duplicating machinery, using a polygraph/autopen extensively in the early 19th century [1] [2]. In modern debates about raw volume, competing claims point to Joe Biden as the most prolific recent user based on a Heritage Foundation analysis of documents [3] [4], but there is no neutral, comprehensive dataset across presidencies to declare a single definitive “most” in absolute terms [5] [6].
1. Jefferson: the first president to put a machine to steady work
Thomas Jefferson purchased and used a polygraph—an early form of the autopen—soon after the device was patented in 1803, and historians describe him as the first president to use such machines extensively, duplicating correspondence and signatures by mechanical means [1] [2] [6]. Contemporary and retrospective accounts emphasize Jefferson’s practical deployments of the device, making him the historically notable “most” user in the early presidential era simply because he converted a novel gadget into routine White House practice [1] [2].
2. 20th-century presidents scaled usage, but numbers vary by purpose
Through the 20th century autopens migrated from novelty to institutional tool: presidents such as John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and others used signing machines for bulk correspondence and some substantive documents—Johnson even let his autopen be photographed—yet historians and commentators stress usage patterns differed by president and by the kinds of documents being signed [7] [8]. RealClearPolicy’s retrospective frames LBJ as a measurable case—about 40 substantive autopen uses—but it emphasizes that those instances were still a tiny fraction of presidential output (≈40 uses, under 1% of his total) [5].
3. Modern presidents: volume, optics and political weaponization
In the 21st century autopen use is routine for logistical needs—signing lots of correspondence or meeting timing constraints when a president is abroad—and presidents from Barack Obama to Donald Trump have used it in particular circumstances such as signing legislation from overseas [1] [6] [4]. The question of “who used it the most” in recent years has become politicized: conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project released analyses claiming the bulk of documents bearing Joe Biden’s signature were autopen-produced, especially pardons, bringing fresh attention and partisan dispute to usage counts [3] [4].
4. Competing claims about Biden’s usage and the limits of available evidence
The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project said its analysis of thousands of pages found most Biden signatures were by autopen and highlighted pardons purportedly signed when the president was elsewhere, but that claim is part of a broader political critique and has been seized upon by opponents of Biden as proof of delegation or incapacity [3] [4]. Major news outlets and legal reviews place those findings in context: a 2005 Justice Department opinion long-ago concluded that a president need not physically affix a signature for a bill to be law, and commentators note autopen practices have long precedents across administrations, tempering singular conclusions about impropriety [6] [7].
5. Why a single, definitive “most” is elusive
Counts cited in reporting vary by methodology (substantive documents vs. all signed items), by what’s public record, and by partisan motivation—congressional investigations and partisan think tanks have incentives to amplify findings tied to a current political target [9] [3]. Scholarly and journalistic sources confirm widespread historical use from Jefferson onward but also show no central public database tallying autopen instances across administrations, so pronouncing an uncontested overall “most” in raw numbers is not supported by the available reporting [1] [2] [6].
6. Bottom line
Historically, Thomas Jefferson stands out as the earliest extensive user of polygraph/autopen technology [1] [2]; in modern political narrative, Joe Biden has been accused by conservative analysts of the highest recent autopen reliance [3] [4], while scholars point out presidents such as Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy used autopens frequently in context but not necessarily in total-count dominance [5] [8]. Given the absence of a neutral, comprehensive count across all presidencies and the partisan framing of recent analyses, the most supportable conclusion is that Jefferson was the first prominent heavy user historically, and Biden is the center of the contemporary claim of highest use—yet that contemporary claim remains contested and not definitively settled by publicly available, nonpartisan data [1] [3] [5] [6].