Election law statistics show how differently U.S. states organize voting. Rules vary on identification, registration deadlines, mail voting, ballot curing, equipment testing, recounts, and the administration of the 2024 general election. The figures below combine nationwide state comparisons with 2024 election results reported in the Election Assistance Commission’s EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report and National Conference of State Legislatures summaries.
Contents
- Voter identification and registration
- Voting equipment, testing, and audits
- Mail voting and ballot drop boxes
- Ballot curing and recount rules
- Registration, overseas voters, and turnout
- How Americans voted in 2024
- Election workers and administration
Voter identification and registration
Voter identification laws are not uniform. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that 36 states require voters to show either a photo identification document or a non-photo identification document at the polls. In contrast, 14 states and Washington, D.C., allow an in-person Election Day ballot without showing an identification document under the cited framework. Source: NCSL, Voter Verification Without ID Documents.
The type of identification matters. NCSL reports that 23 states ask voters for photo ID at the polls, while 13 states also accept a non-photo form of identification. These categories describe state-law approaches rather than a single nationwide standard. Source: NCSL, Voter ID Laws.
The EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report provides another nationwide measure: 69.6% of states require voters to present an acceptable form of identification for in-person voting, excluding first-time voters. Among states with an in-person identification requirement, 66.7% require photo identification. Of those identification-requiring states, 79.5% allow a voter who lacks acceptable ID at the polling place to cast a provisional ballot. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Registration access also differs by state. NCSL reports that 19 states and Washington, D.C., make voter registration available on Election Day. A separate NCSL summary counts 22 states and Washington, D.C., that allow same-day registration during early voting or on Election Day. The difference reflects the scope of each measure: one concerns Election Day availability, while the other includes early-voting periods. Sources: NCSL, Voter Registration Deadlines and NCSL, Same Day Voter Registration.
Online registration was available in 47 states in 2024, while eight states did not offer it, according to the EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report. The same report found that 96.4% of states allowed people under age 18 to preregister and become automatically registered at 18. Among states allowing preregistration, 39.6% permitted it at age 17 and 49% permitted it at age 16. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Voting equipment, testing, and audits
Election law also governs the technology used to register voters, issue ballots, and count votes. The EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report found that 78.6% of states required voting-system testing and certification by statute. Another 14.3% required those procedures through a formal administrative rule or guidance.
Among states with voting-system testing requirements, 48.1% required testing by an EAC-accredited Voting System Test Laboratory. A total of 46.2% required testing under the EAC-adopted Voluntary Voting System Guidelines. Federal certification with an explicit reference to EAC certification was required by 38.5% of states, while 38.5% required state certification independent of federal certification. These percentages describe different legal requirements and should not be treated as mutually exclusive categories. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Electronic poll books were used by 39.9% of jurisdictions in the 2024 general election, the highest percentage reported to date in EAVS. In 19 states, every EAVS jurisdiction used electronic poll books in 2024. Electronic poll books are therefore a substantial part of election administration, although their use was not universal across all jurisdictions. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Testing continued immediately before tabulation. Some form of logic and accuracy testing before vote tabulation began was reported by 92.9% of states. Two-thirds of states reported conducting some form of post-election tabulation audit. Together, these measures describe both pre-tabulation checks and post-election review, rather than one identical procedure applied everywhere. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Mail voting and ballot drop boxes
Rules for voting by mail varied in the 2024 general election. The EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report found that 18 states required an excuse to vote by mail, while 38 states did not. Twelve states conducted all-mail elections: nine statewide and three in certain jurisdictions. In addition, 25 states allowed voters to be placed on a permanent absentee voting list. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Ballot drop boxes were allowed in 36 states. Nearly 15 million mail ballots were returned through drop boxes in 2024. In states able to track the method, those returns represented 44.6% of all returned mail ballots and 20.8% of all ballots cast and counted. The average share of returned mail ballots deposited in drop boxes rose by 9.2 percentage points between the 2022 and 2024 general elections among states that tracked both cycles. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
The timing and administration of drop boxes also differed. Seventeen states made them available beginning in September 2024, while 19 states began in October. Among states using drop boxes, 22.2% collected them once per day. Fourteen percent directly mandated the number of drop boxes per jurisdiction, and about 40% gave jurisdiction officials discretion over the number used. These figures show that “drop box access” includes several separate legal and operational choices. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Ballot curing and recount rules
Ballot curing was allowed by 76.8% of states for the 2024 general election. In states that allowed curing, 86% said a missing voter signature could be corrected, 72.1% said a nonmatching voter signature could be corrected, and 62.8% said a missing or incomplete required document could be corrected. A missing witness signature could be cured in 20.9% of curing states. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
The deadline can be as important as the type of defect. In 30.2% of curing states, the cure had to be completed by Election Day for the ballot to count. States notified voters through several channels: 86% used mail, 86% used email, 79% used phone notification, and 37.2% used an online portal. The notification percentages are not exclusive because a state could use more than one method. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Recount rules likewise provide multiple pathways. Among states reporting recount procedures, 60.7% said a recount may be ordered by a court, and 50% said it may be requested by an affected party or candidate. An automatic recount may occur when results fall within a specified margin in 46.4% of states. In 30.4%, a recount can occur when results fall within a margin and an affected candidate or party requests it. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
| Recount feature | Share of states reporting it |
|---|---|
| Court may order a recount | 60.7% |
| Affected party or candidate may request one | 50% |
| Automatic recount within a specified margin | 46.4% |
| Margin plus affected-party request | 30.4% |
| Machine recount of paper ballots or voter-verified paper audit trails | 71.4% |
| Manual recount of paper ballots or voter-verified paper audit trails | 53.6% |
The EAVS report also found that 71.4% of states said recounts can use a machine recount of paper ballots or voter-verified paper audit trails. Manual recounts of those paper records were available in 53.6% of states. The measures describe reported legal possibilities, not the number of recounts actually conducted. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Registration, overseas voters, and turnout
More than 211 million individuals were active registered voters for the 2024 general election, equal to 86.6% of the citizen voting-age population. Between the close of registration for the 2022 and 2024 general elections, more than 103 million registration transactions were processed. Nearly 40 million confirmation notices were sent for eligibility verification and list maintenance, and nearly 70% were not returned by voters. More than 21 million voter registration records were removed from state voter lists during that period. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Overseas and military voters were covered by additional procedures. More than 1.3 million ballots were transmitted to UOCAVA voters for the 2024 general election, with 70% transmitted to overseas citizens. States reported more than 28,000 Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots, or FWABs, submitted by voters. The FWAB helped more than 20,000 additional UOCAVA voters have their ballots counted. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Turnout was 64.7% of the citizen voting-age population in the 2024 general election. More than 158,211,780 ballots were cast and counted. These figures measure participation against the citizen voting-age population and count ballots cast and counted; they are not interchangeable with registration rates. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
How Americans voted in 2024
The 2024 ballot totals were distributed across three broad voting methods. In-person voting before Election Day accounted for 35.2% of voters. In-person voting on Election Day accounted for 37.4%, while mail voting accounted for 30.3% of turnout. The categories and percentages are reported by the EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report; their presentation here preserves the report’s measures without adding unsupported calculations. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
More than 585,000 mail ballots entered the cure process in 2024. That figure concerns ballots requiring a correction process, not all mail ballots returned. It therefore belongs alongside, but should not be substituted for, the separate figures on drop-box returns, mail-voting turnout, or the number of ballots cast and counted. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Election workers and administration
Election administration depends on a large temporary workforce. More than 770,000 individuals served as poll workers in the 2024 general election. Of those poll workers, 15.5% were serving for the first time. The figures measure service in the 2024 election and distinguish the overall workforce from the first-time share. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.
Taken together, these election law statistics describe a system with substantial state-by-state variation. Identification rules, registration access, equipment certification, ballot curing, recount triggers, mail voting, and election-day operations are governed through overlapping statutes, regulations, administrative practices, and jurisdiction-level choices. The 2024 EAVS measures show the scale of that administration, from more than 211 million active registered voters and more than 158 million ballots cast and counted to more than 770,000 poll workers supporting the process. Source: EAVS 2024 Comprehensive Report.