Misinformation online and false claims of election fraud by former President Donald Trump and his allies have sharply eroded public trust in the integrity of U.S. elections. Trump’s camp has zeroed in on electronic vote-tabulating systems, falsely alleging that they were somehow rigged against him. How Americans vote — and the equipment they use — varies widely, and some methods are more vulnerable to efforts to shake that trust. Heading into the 2022 midterms, election experts say the move in most states to hybrid voting systems – paper ballots tallied by electronic machines – could give voters greater confidence.
Graphic showing how many people vote by paper versus electronically
Nearly 70% of registered voters live in jurisdictions that primarily use hand-marked paper ballots, according to data from Verified Voting, an organization that tracks voting technology.
About 23% of registered voters live in jurisdictions that primarily use ballot marking devices, machines that allow voters to make their selections electronically and also produce a paper record that can be scanned by another device.
About 7% of registered voters live in jurisdictions that primarily use direct recording electronic (DRE) machines, computers that store votes in memory. These machines can either produce a paper record of the vote or not. This percentage has been shrinking in recent years, but that was not always the case.
The United States, like most countries, uses paper ballots to vote. In most...
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