paper trail

Definition of paper trail

: documents (such as financial records) from which a person's actions may be traced or opinions learned

Examples of paper trail in a Sentence

They covered up the fraud and were careful not to leave a paper trail.

Recent Examples on the Web But because of the legal paper trail CGL assembled, with the support of Canadian and local governments, the public perception of the Wet’suwet’en rejection of the pipeline will likely linger in a grey area. — Nick Martin, The New Republic, "The Colonizer Always Comes Out," 17 Jan. 2020 That prompted a wide range of election integrity advocates and experts to urge states to switch to machines that produce an auditable paper trail. — USA TODAY, "Crystal Cathedral reborn Catholic, 'Conjuring' house, Wiki ‘editathon’: News from around our 50 states," 11 July 2019 That prompted a wide range of election integrity advocates and experts to urge states to switch to machines that produce an auditable paper trail. — Washington Post, "Wolf orders bond issue to help counties buy voting machines," 9 July 2019 Among other top firms paid for political consulting by the party or the super PAC are a handful of limited-liability companies with little public presence or paper trails, obscuring the names of those who are running these businesses. — Author: Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Anu Narayanswamy, Anchorage Daily News, "Trump’s 2016 campaign was run on a shoestring. His reelection machine is huge - and armed with consultants.," 9 Oct. 2019 These rules were often unspoken and enforced without a paper trail. — Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post, "Conservatives claim Elizabeth Warren lied about pregnancy firing. Women reality-checked them on social media.," 9 Oct. 2019 The teen's family has pressured the Vatican to open its archives to search for possible paper trails related to the case. — Fox News, "Expert says Vatican space holds bones of dozens amid bid to solve girl’s 1983 disappearance," 20 July 2019 The state requires extensive machine testing prior to elections, paper trails, and audits of a random 1% of ballots to ensure vote count accuracy. — Hadley Hitson, Fortune, "Just How Regulated Are Our Nation’s Elections?," 4 Dec. 2019 More recently, states and counties have switched to machines that offer electronic options: optical scanners and machines that mark ballots for voters — most with paper trails and some without. — Jessica Huseman, ProPublica, "The Market for Voting Machines Is Broken. This Company Has Thrived in It.," 28 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'paper trail.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

14 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Paper trail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paper%20trail. Accessed 20 Feb. 2020.

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