Voting by mail used to be considered a practice mostly for the elderly, disabled, or military members. In the post-pandemic era, many Americans send in their votes by mail. However, mail-in voting is not an option in every state, and the integrity of mail-in voting has been called into question. Where can people use the option? How much fraud occurs? Could mail-in voting become the way Americans vote in the future?
How are votes cast in the United States?
Voters in American elections cast ballots in person at polling stations or through the mail. There are two types of mail-in voting: universal vote by mail and absentee balloting. Universal vote by mail is when states mail ballots to all eligible voters, who can simply mail their ballot back, drop it off at a collection location, or vote in person on election day. Absentee balloting is when a voter requests that a ballot be mailed to them, which they can then return through the mail.
What variation is there in vote by mail and absentee voting?
In 27 states and Washington D.C., eligible voters may receive an absentee mail-in ballot without explanation (“no excuse absentee voting”). Eight other states mail ballots to all eligible voters (“universal vote by mail”). The remaining 15 states require an acceptable excuse for why the person cannot vote in person.
Source: Constructed by Policy vs Politics from NCSL (2022)
The list of acceptable excuses for not being able to vote in person varies by state. Every state allows voters traveling or with a medical condition or disability to vote by absentee ballot. Other acceptable excuses include having a work shift during all hours of voting, studying abroad, serving as an election or poll worker, religious beliefs or holidays, or having jury duty throughout the day.
What are the advantages of voting by mail and absentee voting?
As originally implemented, voting by mail made voting more accessible for individuals with difficulty casting a ballot in person, such as those with limited mobility, significant health concerns, or active military service. However, particularly for states with no-excuse absentee voting or universal voting by mail, the intent is to increase voter turnout, reduce costs by limiting the staff and equipment needed to run traditional polling locations and shorten lines on Election Day.
Proponents of vote by mail argued that moving to this method would increase voter turnout. Turnout was higher in the 2020 presidential elections compared to 2016 and earlier. However, many factors shape turnout. Detailed studies have found that moving to vote by mail has had no systematic effect on voter turnout in regular elections. However, it may increase turnout in special elections (those held between regularly scheduled elections).
What are the risks of mail-in voting and absentee voting?
One problem with mail-in voting is that there is no way for voters to ask questions about ballot structure, including which offices they are eligible to cast vote for. Voting from home via mail-in ballot may increase the possibility that a voter unintentionally omits required information or incorrectly fills out the form, leading to an increased rate of rejected mailed ballots.
Some critics of mail-in voting argue that it permits voter fraud, as someone could fill out another person’s ballot in an attempt to vote more than once. A primary measure against such fraud is that voters must sign their mail ballot. These signatures are examined by election officials when the ballot is received and compared to those gathered when the voter registered. If there are discrepancies, the voter is contacted and asked to verify their vote or to vote on Election Day. While this practice may seem less-than-completely airtight, it is the same standard used to validate in-person votes in the states that do not have voter ID laws.
Another concern is the practice of ballot harvesting, where an organization distributes large numbers of mail-in ballots to citizens, then returns to collect the completed ballots and submit them on the voters’ behalf. Some states ban this practice entirely, while others restrict the number of harvested ballots. However, in many states, there are no restrictions on ballot harvesting.
The concern with ballot harvesting is that the organizations engaging in the practice might not return all the ballots they collect. They could, for example, substitute new ballots for those collected – the only way such behavior would be detected is if the ballot failed the signature check. Harvesters could also open ballots and submit only those who voted for their supporters. Such deception would be detected only if voters inquired whether their votes were received or if a county sent confirmation notices.
Finally, it is important to note that in states that allow ballot harvesting, harvesting that involves an organization only distributing ballots to their supporters is entirely legal. Such practices may advantage one party or a small number of candidates. At the same time, nothing prevents other candidates from making similar efforts.
The limited verification and the potential for ballot harvesting make some citizens suspicious of voting by mail. However, research has found very little evidence of voter fraud. A database maintained by the Heritage Foundation, an organization seen by many as right-leaning, found that since 1993, there have been about 300 cases where charges were brought for voter fraud involving absentee ballots. There were about 150 additional cases of duplicate voting, not all of which involved mail-in ballots. During this time, Americans cast more than a billion votes in national and local elections. Thus, the rate of any type of election fraud involving vote by mail is very low overall.
How might mail-in voting change in the future?
The percentage of Americans casting mail-in votes has increased in recent years. During the pandemic, 43% of 2020 voters cast a mail ballot compared to 30.4% who voted in person and 26% who voted early. Even after social distancing restrictions were lifted, 31.9% of voters voted by mail in the 2022 general election, lower than the 2020 rate but higher than the 25.6% of mail-in voters in the 2018 election.
States are also implementing drop-box systems as an alternative to mailing in ballots. Drop boxes are securely locked containers where a voter (or their authorized representative) may deliver their mail-in ballot for collection instead of putting the ballot directly into their mailbox for return service. Providing more secure drop-off points for completed ballots may improve the reliability of voting by mail as it could decrease the small chance that a ballot could get lost in the mail. Currently, 39 states have established drop box locations.
Further Reading
West, D. (2020). How does vote-by-mail work, and does it increase election fraud? Brookings. http://tinyurl.com/y7hkjh7t, accessed 2/12/24.
Levitt, J. (2007). The Truth About Voter Fraud. The Brennan Law Center. http://tinyurl.com/55uwz7cy, accessed 2/12/24.
Yoder, J., Handan-Nader, C., Myers, A., Nowacki, T., Thompson, D. M., Wu, J. A., Yorgason, C., & Hall, A. B. (2021). How did absentee voting affect the 2020 U.S. election? Science Advances, 7(52). http://tinyurl.com/26exy5fa, accessed 2/12/24.
Sources
How are votes cast in the United States?
West, D. (2020). How does vote-by-mail work and does it increase election fraud? Brookings. http://tinyurl.com/y7hkjh7t, accessed 2/12/24.
What variation is there in vote by mail and absentee voting?
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2022). Voting Outside the Polling Place: Absentee, All-Mail and Other Voting at Home Options. http://tinyurl.com/494428kf, accessed 2/12/24. (Chart Data).
Ura, Alexa. (2022). More than 12% of mail-in ballots were rejected in Texas under new GOP voting rules, final tally shows. The Texas Tribune. http://tinyurl.com/5n7nz2y4, accessed 2/12/24.
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2022). Voting Outside the Polling Place: Absentee, All-Mail and Other Voting at Home Options. http://tinyurl.com/494428kf, accessed 2/12/24.
National Conference of State Legislatures. (2023). States with No Excuse Absentee Voting. http://tinyurl.com/55hdxyfv, accessed 2/12/24.
West, D. (2020). How does vote-by-mail work, and does it increase election fraud? Brookings. http://tinyurl.com/y7hkjh7t, accessed 2/12/24.
What are the advantages of voting by mail and absentee voting?
Yoder, J., Handan-Nader, C., Myers, A., Nowacki, T., Thompson, D. M., Wu, J. A., Yorgason, C., & Hall, A. B. (2021). How did absentee voting affect the 2020 U.S. election? Science Advances, 7(52). http://tinyurl.com/26exy5fa, accessed 2/12/24.
Arceneaux, K., Kousser, T., & Mullin, M. (2012). Get out the vote-by-mail? A randomized field experiment testing the effect of mobilization in traditional and vote-by-mail precincts. Political Research Quarterly, 65(4), 882-894, https://www.jstor.org/stable/41759321, accessed 2/12/24.
Kousser, T., & Mullin, M. (2007). Does voting by mail increase participation? Using matching to analyze a natural experiment. Political Analysis, 15(4), 428-445, http://tinyurl.com/4ta628wx, accessed 2/12/24.
What are the risks of mail-in voting and absentee voting?
Christensen, R., & Schultz, T. J. (2014). Identifying Election Fraud Using Orphan and Low Propensity Voters. American Politics Research, 42(2), 311–337. http://tinyurl.com/43n873uv, accessed 2/12/24.
Levitt, J. (2007). The Truth About Voter Fraud. The Brennan Law Center. http://tinyurl.com/55uwz7cy, accessed 2/12/24.
Lockhart, M., Hill, S. J., Merolla, J., Romero, M., & Kousser, T. (2020). America’s electorate is increasingly polarized along partisan lines about voting by mail during the COVID-19 crisis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(40). http://tinyurl.com/mtcc2tdr, accessed 2/12/24.
Pew. (2020). Voter evaluations of the 2020 election process. Pew Research Center. http://tinyurl.com/4wn38h2n, accessed 2/12/24
Heritage Foundation (2023). Election Fraud Cases. http://tinyurl.com/2r83ympc, accessed 2/12/24.
Auerbach, J., & Pierson, S. (2021). Does voting by mail increase fraud? Estimating the change in reported voter fraud when states switch to elections by mail. Statistics and Public Policy, 8(1), 18-41. http://tinyurl.com/ymvxta3e, accessed 2/12/24.
Alvarez, R. M., Cao, J., & Li, Y. (2021). Voting experiences, perceptions of fraud, and voter confidence. Social Science Quarterly, 102(4), 1225-1238, https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12940, accessed 2/12/24.
Eggers, A. C., Garro, H., & Grimmer, J. (2021). No evidence for systematic voter fraud: A guide to statistical claims about the 2020 election. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(45). http://tinyurl.com/yuprvm8a, accessed 2/12/24.
How might mail-in voting change in the future?
U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2020. http://tinyurl.com/2a7zyfw2, accessed 2/12/24.
U.S. Election Assistance Commission. (2023). Election Administration and Voting Survey 2022 Comprehensive Report: A Report from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to the 118th Congress. http://tinyurl.com/2kycyh63, accessed 2/12/24.
Contributors
Zul Norin (Intern) is an undergraduate majoring in Economics at Vanderbilt University and is expected to graduate in May 2024.
Mary Stafford (Intern) is an undergraduate at Indiana University – Bloomington majoring in Public Policy Analysis and pursuing a certificate in Public and Civic Engagement at Indiana University. In addition to her role at Policy vs. Politics, she serves on the board of directors for Monroe County Court-appointed Special Advocates and is in the process of applying to law school after graduation in May 2024.
Griffin Reid (Team Lead) is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University and holds a Masters in Political Science from Indiana University – Indianapolis. His research is in American politics, legislative institutions, and electoral behavior. He is currently Press Secretary for the Indiana Republican Party.
Nick Clark (Content Lead) is Professor of Political Science at Susquehanna University, where he is also Department Chair in Political Science and Director of the Public Policy Program and the Innovation Center. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and studies political institutions, European politics, and the politics of economic policy.
Cory Colby (Subject Matter Expert) is Professor of Political Science at Lone Star College in Houston, Texas, where he is also the Civic Engagement Program Coordinator. He received an MA in Political Science from Sam Houston State University and was a congressional staffer for Representative Kevin Brady. His research focuses on electoral institutions and voter turnout.
William Bianco (Research Director) received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Rochester. He is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Indiana Political Analytics Workshop at Indiana University. His current research is on representation, political identities, and the politics of scientific research.
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Published 3/19/24