Vote by Mail

States with all vote-by-mail process make the process easiest on voters. Voting by mail works smoothly and efficiently.

Vote by mail, also known as all-mail elections, has been an essential part of the elections process for voters away from home, such as members of our military, for well over a century. There are two kinds of mail balloting systems and they are universal vote by mail and absentee balloting.

Absentee ballots were first used for the military during the American Civil War (1861-1865). During the COVID-19 pandemic its use increased enormously across the country. In the 2020 election vote-by-mail accounted for 43% of votes cast, an increase from 2016 when about 21% of U.S. voters cast ballots by mail.

Researchers in 2020 found that in elections with all-mail voting, overall turnout increases. In Colorado they found overall turnout rose 9 percentage points. The increase was 16 points among young people, 13 points among African-Americans, 11 points among Asian-Americans, and 10 points among Latinos. Despite partisan fears, research suggests neither party gains an advantage in voting by mail.

Oregon became the first state in the United States to conduct all its elections exclusively by mail with passage of Ballot Measure 60, a citizen’s initiative, in 1998. It was passed by votes by a margin of 69.4% to 30.6%.

Accusations of widespread mail-in ballot fraud are baseless. There is no evidence that mail ballots increase electoral fraud. Anti-fraud protections are built into the process such as checking signatures to attempt to prevent forged paper ballots. The first step after receiving mailed ballots is to compare the voter’s signature on the outside of the envelope with one or more signatures on file in the election office. Signature mismatches are the most common reason for rejecting postal ballots. Those who abuse mail ballots can be charged with election fraud and face fines or prison time.

In 16 states, when election officials reject signatures, voters are notified so they can mail another signature. Voters can also come to their election office and vouch for the envelope. The other 36 states have no process to fix discrepancies.

In 2020 an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 58% of American voters favor nationwide election reform to allow everyone to vote by mail.

• • In seven states – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington – all elections are conducted by mail. In Vermont, currently only general elections are held entirely by mail and all active voters receive a mail ballot. In the District of Columbia all active registered voter are mailed a ballot for the 2022 elections. In these states voting in person is also available.

• • Two states, Nebraska and North Dakota, permit residents to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail. Residents can also vote in person.

• • Nine states, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming, allow specific small elections to be conducted by mail.

• • Four states, Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey and New Mexico, permit all-mail elections for certain small jurisdictions.

  Vote by mail deadlines are determined by state law. In some jurisdictions postmarks are not counted and ballots must be received by a certain time on election day. In other jurisdictions, a ballot must have a postmark on or before the day of the election.

  In 2020, voters cast 70,550,699 absentee or mail-in ballots in the general election. Of these, 560,177 or 0.8% were rejected. In the 2016 general election, out of 318,728 ballots cast by mail and 1% rejected, the leading causes for ballot rejection were non-matching signature (27.5%), ballot missed deadline (23.1%), no signature (20%), no witness signature (3%), and voter deceased (1.5%).