• Former President Trump's advocacy for a wholesale switch to paper ballots significantly overstates the current state of U.S. election infrastructure, with approximately 98% of votes in the 2024 election already recorded on paper.
  • A recent policy shift in Dallas County, Texas—limited to hand-counting ballots only for the Republican primary on Election Day—has been mischaracterized as a broader adoption of paper-only voting, highlighting the gap between political rhetoric and on-the-ground procedures.
  • The push creates internal tension for Republicans, as state parties and candidates actively encourage vote-by-mail participation despite Trump's calls to eliminate it, presenting a strategic challenge for the 2026 election cycle.

Former President Donald Trump's recent calls for Republican governors to adopt paper ballots nationwide have intensified a political debate over election security, but his characterization of the electoral landscape is at odds with the current, widespread use of paper-based systems and is creating operational contradictions within his own party.

While Trump frames the issue as a necessary security overhaul, the reality is that paper ballots are already the norm. According to election data, approximately 98 percent of all votes cast in the 2024 election were recorded on paper, a significant increase from 93 percent just four years earlier. Every key swing state—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—already uses voting systems that produce a paper record. Most employ systems where voters either mark a paper ballot by hand or use a touch screen that prints a paper ballot for verification before it is cast.

"What institutional investors like us are really focused on is regulatory stability," said a source familiar with election technology investments, drawing a parallel to financial markets. "In this regard, the move to auditable paper trails has been on a very steady trajectory."

The political spotlight recently turned to Dallas County, Texas, after Trump celebrated what he described as the county switching "entirely to paper ballots." However, people familiar with the matter clarify that this characterization misrepresents a much narrower party-level decision. The Dallas County Republican Party voted in September to hand-count all Election Day ballots specifically for the March GOP primary. This policy applies only to that single party's primary, only on Election Day, and does not alter countywide procedures for Democratic voters, early voting, or the general election.

Dallas County Elections has made no announcement about adopting full paper-ballot voting or eliminating machines. The county continues to use state-certified voting systems that produce a paper audit trail, as required by Texas law. Election security experts, while broadly supportive of paper records for post-election audits, have raised concerns about large-scale hand-counting, noting it is often slower, more expensive, and can be less accurate than machine tabulation.

Beyond the rhetoric, a stark contradiction is emerging within Republican campaign operations. While Trump has called for eliminating mail-in voting entirely, stating "No mail-in or 'Early' Voting, Yes to Voter ID!", Republican officials and activists in key states have spent recent years aggressively encouraging their voters to embrace absentee voting. In Pennsylvania, a state central to any national electoral strategy, the Republican Party recently posted on social media: "If there is even a 1% chance that you might miss the 2025 Election, sign up for a mail-in ballot today! It's quick and easy!"

This tension is reflected in the data. In Pennsylvania, Republicans accounted for 34 percent of total votes by mail in 2024, a notable increase from 23 percent in 2020. Similar pushes are underway in other states with off-year races, from California to New Jersey, where Republican candidates are noting increased party participation in vote-by-mail programs.

"We have to embrace no-excuse mail-in voting," acknowledged Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Trump ally who previously criticized absentee voting during his 2022 gubernatorial campaign. The challenge for operatives is that effective vote-by-mail programs require long lead times and cannot be rolled out at the last minute to significantly impact participation rates.

The administration has taken other actions that ripple through state election offices. An executive order issued in March created uncertainty by advising against using voting systems "in which a vote is contained within a barcode or quick-response code," with an exception for voters with disabilities. This has prompted concerns in states like West Virginia, where all counties use such codes, with the secretary of state indicating the state may return to hand-marked paper ballots for upcoming primaries.

Looking ahead, the gap between the top-down political messaging on election procedures and the bottom-up realities of running competitive campaigns presents a clear strategic hurdle. As one Republican strategist, who asked not to be named to discuss internal party dynamics, put it: "The market here for voting methods is not as monolithic as the rhetoric suggests. You have to create your own operational playbook to win." The party's ability to reconcile these divergent approaches will be tested in the 2026 midterms, where early voting programs must be built now to bear fruit later.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that 98% of votes in the 2024 election were cast on paper ballots. The figure refers to votes recorded on paper, which includes hand-marked ballots and those printed by ballot-marking devices for voter verification.