The first time I voted by mail, I sent my ballot “priority express” from the university post office. No way would Oliver North represent Virginia in the Senate. Not on my watch!
Since that first voting experience, I’ve had the opportunity to cast my vote by mail from across the border in Canada and more recently across the Atlantic Ocean in Scotland. Despite claims to the contrary by Donald Trump, voting by mail is a safe and legitimate way for eligible Americans to cast their ballots this election season.
The terms “absentee” and “mail-in voting” are used interchangeably in the U.S. because, historically, ballots have been delivered through the mail to voters. Absentee voting in America is even older than the nation itself.
“Absentee voting in America is even older than the nation itself.”
Early history
Settlers in 17th-century Massachusetts could vote from home if traveling to vote in person left their property “vulnerable to Indian attack.” There’s a long tradition of facilitating absentee voting for military personnel. In 1775, the votes of soldiers in the Continental Army were delivered in writing to officials in Hollis, N.H., “as if the men were present themselves.” Pennsylvania soldiers did the same during the War of 1812. During the Civil War, state officials and specially appointed clerks supervised voting in Union and Confederate camps and hospitals. Connecticut, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia collected ballots, tally sheets or proxy votes for those soldiers serving at the front.
States began expanding absentee voting in the late 1800s to include civilians who were ill or away from home on Election Day. When the country entered World War I, almost all states allowed soldiers to vote by mail during war time. In 1942, Congress passed the Soldier Voting Act so those stationed overseas could vote in federal elections, but made no actual provision for them to do so.
Representatives from Southern states balked at the bill’s requirement that servicemen would not have to pay a poll tax to vote, a decision that empowered Black voters. More recently, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986 and the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act improved ballot access and made it easier for American soldiers and citizens living abroad to register to vote.
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Expanding access
Through the years, states steadily expanded the list of reasons citizens can cite to vote by mail — including holding certain jobs such as railroad employees and traveling salesmen, workers deemed to be “toiling and sacrificing … for the common good” — and many did away with criteria altogether. Currently 17 states still require voters to meet specific conditions to justify their absentee ballots such as disability, travel, age or being a shift worker.
In 2008, Virginia added “pregnancy” to its list of 24 acceptable conditions, which enabled 2,372 pregnant women to vote absentee in the presidential election. However, because the state did not add breastfeeding 2-month-old twins to the list, I had to vote in person that year and pray I would be finished before it was time to nurse again.
“In 1978, California became the first state to offer mail-in voting to all eligible voters regardless of reason.”
In 1978, California became the first state to offer mail-in voting to all eligible voters regardless of reason. As of 2023, 28 states and the District of Columbia offer no-excuse absentee voting.
Voting by mail is popular
According to the 2022 Election Administration and Voting Survey, no-excuse absentee voting improves voter participation. Their survey showed 23.3% of voters in no-excuse states cast their ballots by mail, while only 5.4% did so in states that still required specific conditions to be met. According to the ACLU of Virginia, when the state finally implemented no-excuse absentee voting in 2020, it increased access for minority voters, those with disabilities, and voters living in rural communities. A survey conducted by Pew Research in May 2024 found 60% of Americans think voters should have the option to vote early or by absentee ballot without having to submit a reason.
That same survey showed 55% of eligible voters who currently live in states that require a valid excuse to vote by mail would prefer their state switch to no-excuse voting. In 2020, many states did just that to make voting safer during the COVID pandemic. This led to more voters than ever before casting their ballots by mail.
Some states like Massachusetts and Virginia made the change permanent. Before 2020, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington mailed absentee ballots to all registered voters. California, Nevada, Vermont and the District of Columbia switched to all-mail voting during the pandemic and made the change permanent afterward.
In New Mexico, new voting legislation permits the state to automatically register new voters when they contact the DMV. Voters in the state can request absentee ballots for all future elections without needing to reapply.
Minnesota also added automatic registration and a permanent absentee voter list, along with preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Voters are allowed to correct mistakes on their absentee ballot envelopes in Michigan and can use Tribal ID, student ID and military ID as forms of identification when voting.
This November, voters in Connecticut will weigh in on a state constitutional amendment to legalize no-excuse absentee voting.
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Partisan views on voting by mail
While Democrats in blue states have embraced the expansion of absentee voting since the 2020 election, Republicans now view it as a threat — even though research shows the process itself doesn’t favor one party over the other. Democratic support has remained constant since 2020, hovering around 84%. Republican support, however, has fallen from 49% in 2020 to 28% in 2024.
“Research shows the process itself doesn’t favor one party over the other.”
This decline coincides with Donald Trump’s attacks on absentee voting following his loss in 2020. In order to cast doubt on the election’s legitimacy, Trump falsely claimed that mail in voting was “a con job” full of fraud and subject to abuse by foreign countries. He blamed absentee voter fraud for his losses in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
But as with all claims of voter fraud, documented cases of actual fraud are rare. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a paper ballot completed by hand (which is what absentee ballots are) is the most secure form of voting.
The steps required to obtain, complete and return an absentee ballot make it difficult to perpetrate fraud on an impactful scale. Each ballot envelope has a unique tracking number so local officials can be sure each voter is only casting a single vote. States are embedding that identification number into an Intelligent Mail Barcode the postal system can use to track the progress of each ballot to and from its intended recipient. Because it’s the envelope and not the ballot itself being tracked, this is not considered a violation of voter privacy. Counties are using technology like BallotTrax and Ballot Scout to send users text, email or recorded updates about their ballots.
In addition to the security that tracking individual ballots provides, each state has its own protocol for verifying vote-by-mail ballots. After filling out the absentee ballot, the voter signs an affidavit swearing to its legality. Some states verify signatures, others require a second party to witness the process. In Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma, absentee ballots must be notarized before they are returned.
Since the 2020 election, other Republican-led states have made it more difficult for voters to participate by mail. Indiana and Wyoming now require voters to provide identification when requesting absentee ballots. A 2021 Texas law requires voters to include ID numbers or partial Social Security numbers on both mail-in ballot applications and ballot envelopes. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Republican National Committee in its appeal over an Arizona law requiring residents show proof of citizenship before registering to vote in state elections. To vote in national elections, Arizonans can register using a federal form without the proof of citizenship requirement.
“Voter identification requirements disproportionately impact minority voters and transgender people.”
Research by the University of Maryland’s Center for Civic Democracy and Engagement, the Brennan Center for Justice, and VoteRiders indicates 21.3 million Americans do not have ready access to proof of citizenship. Another University of Maryland study in 2020 revealed 29 million Americans did not have a valid driver’s license and 7.6 million lacked a valid government ID. Voter identification requirements disproportionately impact minority voters and transgender people who have difficulty obtaining new identification to match their current name and gender identity.
A 2023 Ohio law made it a felony for anyone other than an election official or mail carrier to possess the absentee ballot of a disabled voter, except for a very narrow list of family members. Caretakers, neighbors and grandchildren all were excluded from the state’s approved list. Fortunately, in July a federal court overturned the law, ruling the Voting Rights Act allows those with disabilities to “select a person of their choice to assist them with voting.”
The problem in Georgia
Georgia’s 98-page voting law halved the number of days registered voters have to request an absentee ballot from six months to three. Whereas before voters only had to sign their absentee ballots, now they must include the number on their driver’s license, state ID card or other approved form of identification.
The law also reduced the number of drop boxes available to collect absentee ballots in the state. In 2020, the metro Atlanta counties of Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett had shared 107 such boxes. Under the new law, there may now be only 25 boxes within these three populous counties. The drop boxes are located indoors with access available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., meaning voters are unable to drop off their ballots before or after normal work hours.
These restrictions place an undue burden on minority and low-income voters whose communities typically lack enough polling places and face long lines on Election Day.
When we lived in a diverse area of Gwinnett County, I stood in line five hours to vote in the 2004 election. The line snaked through the parking lot of the church that served as our polling place and down the block. Over the last 20 years, the population of Gwinnett County has almost doubled. Republican lawmakers viewed its coalition of Black, Asian and Hispanic voters as such a threat that they dismantled the 7th District when they redrew the state’s voting maps to further reduce the impact of minority voters in the 2024 election.
This year’s get out the vote
Although Election Day is November 5, absentee voting for some states starts today. With polls showing a close presidential race, candidates are scrambling for every vote. Even Trump, who once said, “any time the mail is involved, you’re going to have cheating,” is being forced by campaign strategists to revise his message. Voting by mail is now being retooled by the party as a way to beat Democrats at their own game.
“Although Election Day is November 5, absentee voting for some states starts today.”
Along with volunteer poll monitors to ensure “election integrity,” the party is casting mail-in voting as another way to “protect the vote” while raising the specter of potential fraud should Trump lose again. The Republican National Committee has launched “Swamp the Vote,” calling on voters to vote by mail and in Trump’s words, “SWAMP THEM WITH VOTES to guarantee our victory is TOO BIG TO RIG.”
Groups supporting Trump’s candidacy are funding and organizing their own vote-by-mail campaigns. Formerly against mail-in voting, Turning Point Action has launched a $100 million Chase the Vote drive encouraging MAGA voters in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania to post their ballots early. The Heritage Foundation’s Super PAC, the Sentinel Action Fund, is pushing voters in Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania to do the same.
However, even as they prepared to roll out Swamp the Vote, the Republican Party filed two lawsuits in Nevada that would limit voting by mail in the state. This followed similar litigation in Michigan, Wyoming, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that also aimed to curtail absentee voting.
In New York, Republicans attempted to overturn the state’s Early Voting Act, a law establishing no-excuse absentee voting. The state court ruled Aug. 20 that the law is in fact constitutional, so New Yorkers will be able to vote by mail for the 2024 presidential election.
John Lewis Voting Rights Act
In her acceptance speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke of “the freedom that unlocks all the others: the freedom to vote.” Continuing her speech, she said, “With this election, we finally have the opportunity to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.”
The John Lewis Voting Rights Act would restore a provision gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 that required states to get federal approval before making changes to their voting laws. This was to ensure those changes were not racially discriminatory. Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would safeguard Black and Latino voters who are more likely to vote by mail and twice as likely to have their absentee ballots rejected.
The Freedom to Vote Act is legislation intended to counter Republican efforts to restrict voting across the country, crafted in 2021 by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.V.). Voting on that bill split along party lines and failed to garner the 10 extra votes needed to break the filibuster.
At the convention, Schumer said if Democrats win the presidency and hold the majority in the Senate, he is in favor of changing the rules to get the latest version of the bill passed: “This is vital to democracy. This is not just another extraneous issue. This is the wellspring of it all.”
In the House of Representatives, John Sarbanes (D-Md.) is likewise sponsoring Freedom to Vote legislation.
Congressman John Lewis
The Freedom to Vote Act includes national standards for federal elections to ensure all Americans who are eligible to vote have equal access to do so.
“The freedom to vote is fundamental to all of our freedoms, and as we continue to see unprecedented attacks on our democracy in states across the country, it is clear we must take action. These attacks demand a federal response,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “The Freedom to Vote Act will set basic national standards to make sure all Americans can cast their ballots in the way that works best for them, regardless of what ZIP Code they live in.”
If and when passed, the Freedom to Vote Act would make Election Day a federal holiday and require two weeks of early voting. The five-hour lines that plague voters in Gwinnet County would be reduced to a 30-minute wait. The Freedom to Vote Act also would require every state to implement no-excuse absentee voting in federal elections, along with free return postage for absentee ballots. It would remove burdensome requirements like ballot notarization. States also would have to create a process to easily correct ballots missing information and resolve disputes over signature verification, and provide accessible, secure drop boxes. Any absentee ballots postmarked by election day that arrive within seven days of the election would be considered valid.
Yet, even if a President Harris were to sign the Freedom to Vote Act into law, Republicans already are planning to challenge it, accusing the bill of being a “massive power grab.” The case would undoubtedly come before the conservative Supreme Court, which has tended to side with the states and been disinclined to favor increased oversight by the federal government.
Many provisions of the Voting Rights Act already are popular with voters, though. When surveyed, 72% of Americans approve of making Election Day a national holiday and 76% think the country should have two weeks of early voting prior to Election Day.
I already have requested my absentee ballot to vote in the 2024 election. I’m looking forward to sitting down with my now teenage twin daughters and filling out my ballot as we talk about the candidates and the issues. We may not currently live in the United States, but there is nothing more American than voting.
Kristen Thomason is a freelance writer with a background in media studies and production. She has worked with national and international religious organizations and for public television. Currently based in Scotland, she has organized worship arts at churches in Metro D.C. and Toronto. In addition to writing for Baptist News Global, Kristen blogs on matters of faith and social justice at viaexmachina.com.