We examine the spatial relationship between solar flare hard x‐ray emission sites observed with the HXT aboard Yohkoh and photospheric electric currents observed at Mees Solar Observatory. Canfieldetal. (3) concluded that nonthermal electron precipitation tends to occur at the edges of sites of high vertical current, not at their maxima. They did not, however, have very direct observations of the electron precipitation, since they used H&agr; Stark wing emission. In this work we compare hard x‐ray images and vertical current maps in six large M/X‐class flares. Our results confirm that electron precipitation sites avoid regions of strong photospheric vertical currents in large flares, and that magnetic mirroring strongly influences the relative HXR brightness of conjugate footpoints. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.