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What percentage of 2024 election votes used paper ballots?
Executive summary
Nearly all U.S. jurisdictions in 2024 used voting equipment that either had voters mark paper ballots or produced an auditable paper record — the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) reports “over 98%” of jurisdictions used such systems [1]. Estimates of the share of individual voters who cast ballots that leave a paper trail are similar: advocacy and industry summaries cite roughly 95–98% of voters using a verifiable paper ballot or paper-backed system in 2024 [2] [3] [1]. At the same time, method-of-voting breakdowns show about 29–30% of ballots were returned by mail while the majority voted in person [4] [5].
1. Nearly universal paper-capable equipment — what the federal survey found
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s 2024 Election Administration and Voting Survey reports that “over 98% of election jurisdictions” used equipment where voters mark a paper ballot or the machine produces an auditable paper record, and that the number of jurisdictions using paperless systems shrank dramatically [1]. That statistic speaks to the availability of a paper trail in most places, because the EAVS surveys state and local officials who run elections [1].
2. Advocacy and industry echoes — similar headline numbers with different emphases
The Brennan Center and industry groups cite parallel figures: the Brennan Center says “around 98 percent of all votes will be cast on paper in the 2024 general election,” emphasizing that swing states use paper-backed systems [2]. The paper industry cites a Verified Voting estimate that “95% of voters are expected to use a ballot with a verifiable paper trail” in 2024, a slightly lower but comparable figure [3]. These organizations frame the trend as a response to security concerns and equipment upgrades [2] [3].
3. Paper-capable jurisdictions ≠ identical voter experience everywhere
“Over 98% of jurisdictions” having paper-capable equipment does not mean every voter handled a hand-marked paper ballot; some voters used hand-marked paper ballots, others used machines that print a voter-verifiable paper record or produce a ballot image for audit. Sources note variation by state and local procedure — for example, some places still use ballot-marking devices that generate a paper record rather than hand-marked paper [1] [2]. Available sources do not enumerate the precise split among hand-marked paper, machine-printed records, and other paper-backed methods.
4. How many ballots were cast by mail — context on method of delivery
Separately from whether votes leave a paper trail, method-of-voting data show about 29–30% of voters used mail ballots in 2024: the Census CPS reports 29.0% voted by mail [4], while the EAC and news coverage cite roughly 30.3% mail voting in the EAC’s post-election survey [5] [6] [1]. The remainder cast ballots in person — roughly 39–40% on Election Day and about 30–37% during early in-person voting across sources [4] [5].
5. What these two sets of numbers together imply — paper trail plus mail ballots
Combining the facts above: most jurisdictions used systems that produce a paper record (over 98% by jurisdiction) and the majority of voters cast ballots in ways that are consistent with a paper trail, while about 29–30% of ballots were mailed in [1] [4] [5]. This means that a high proportion of counted ballots in 2024 were associated with a verifiable paper record, according to EAC and third-party estimates cited by advocates and the industry [1] [2] [3]. Sources, however, do not give a single official nationwide percentage of counted ballots that were hand-marked paper versus machine-generated paper records.
6. Disagreements, caveats and what’s not in the public reporting
Different sources highlight slightly different numbers (95% vs. 98%) mostly because they are measuring related but not identical things (voters using a verifiable paper trail, jurisdictions using paper-capable equipment, or “expected” voter experiences) [2] [3] [1]. The EAC provides the most direct administrative accounting of jurisdictions; advocacy and industry groups lean on Verified Voting or interpret EAC data to make voter-focused claims [1] [2] [3]. Available sources do not provide a certified, single national tally of how many individual ballots were hand-marked on paper versus how many used machine-printed paper records; that precise split is not found in the current reporting (not found in current reporting).
7. Bottom line for readers concerned about paper ballots
If your concern is whether the U.S. election infrastructure in 2024 generally produced auditable paper records, the EAC says yes — over 98% of jurisdictions used systems with paper records [1]. If your question is the exact share of individual ballots that were hand-marked paper ballots, the sources give high-level estimates (95–98% of voters had access to a paper trail) but do not report a definitive nationwide percentage breaking down hand-marked versus machine-printed paper records (p1_s1; [3]; [1]; not found in current reporting).