Mail Vote Facts • Mail The Vote US

Get the facts about mail vote. Learn what it is, who uses it and why we need it more than ever in the 2020 election.

As COVID-19 continues to spread, officials from both sides of the aisle and the CDC have supported mail-in voting as a pandemic-safe option for the upcoming election.

What Is Mail Voting?

The phrases “mail voting” and “voting by mail” encompass a wide range of policies, all meant to offer more flexibility to voters who either want or need to cast a ballot in a location other than a polling place.

All 50 States Use Mail-In Ballots

States and local governments are in charge of running U.S. elections. Each jurisdiction has its own set of rules, but all states offer accommodations for voters who cannot make it to the polls. “In two-thirds of the states, any qualified voter may vote absentee without offering an excuse, and in one-third of the states, an excuse is required,” according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The practice dates back to the Civil War, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data Lab, when soldiers were given the opportunity to vote from the battlefield. States began expanding absentee voting laws in the late 1800s to accommodate voters who were away from home or sick on Election Day.

Some states allow all registered voters to receive a mail ballot (also known as an absentee ballot), and some states require an excuse or reason. Policies vary widely state by state as well as on what is required to have a mail ballot counted; some states only require a voter’s signature, whereas others require witness signatures or the notarization of a ballot return envelope.

Who Are The All-Mail-Vote States?

Five states are all-mail-vote states: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah*, and Washington. Learn more about mail vote in these states.

Hawaii went so far as to remove polling sites, replacing them with voter service centers.

*Vote by mail in Utah is almost state wide in 27 of the 29 counties as of 2018.

Automatic mail-in ballot systems automatically send ALL eligible voters either a ballot or ballot application. Access to mail voting is not restricted to certain eligibility criteria or excuses.

Several states are temporarily switching to all-mail-vote for the primary election or general or both due to Covid-19. California which is a mail vote state (mail ballot are not automatically sent to everyone) is going all-mail-vote in 2020 (mail ballots are going to be sent to every eligible voter). Find out if your state has implemented Covid-19 voting changes.

Voter Fraud Is Rare

Documented instances of voter fraud are exceedingly rare in the United States, the odds being lower than those of being struck by lightning, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. More than 250 million votes have been cast via mail ballots since 2000, according to the Vote at Home Institute. In 2018, more than 31 million Americans voted by mail, representing one-quarter of election participants. Five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — use mail ballots as the primary method of voting.

“Despite this dramatic increase in mail voting over time, fraud rates remain infinitesimally small,” the Brennan Center says. “None of the five states that hold their elections primarily by mail has had any voter fraud scandals since making that change.”

Jennifer Morrell, an elections consultant and former local elections official in Utah and Colorado, told NPR that for such a plot to work just for a single ballot, an adversary would need to mimic everything perfectly from the ballot’s size, style and even the weight of the paper to the envelope it’s mailed in — all of which often changes every election cycle and differs from county to county.

“Ballots are built unique for each election. Each jurisdiction will normally have dozens to hundreds of unique ballot styles. Proofs for each ballot style are reviewed and tested to ensure the ballot scanners will read those ballots and only those ballots,” Morrell said. “Even ballots created on that system from a previous election cannot be read.”

It’s Not Common Sense Foreign Countries Will Counterfeit Mail-in Ballots

As COVID-19 ravages the United States, President Donald Trump continues to focus on suppressing voter turnout by pushing the false narrative that, without evidence, mail-in voting would lead to widespread voter fraud and a “rigged” election. The fantasized foreign interference in the presidential election would occur via counterfeit ballots.

When asked about the issue in a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General William Barr acknowledged he didn’t have evidence foreign countries could successfully sway US elections with counterfeit ballots but claimed it was “common sense” that they would attempt to do so.

Later in the week, the President went so far as suggesting the November 3rd election should be delayed. (Don’t worry, he does not have the power to do that.)

The claim of course is false and highly unlikely. It’s uncommon sense.

The Facts

More Americans than ever are expected to cast mail-in ballots this year.
While that certainly presents its own challenges, historically voting by mail has not led to massive voter fraud.
Nonpartisan election experts say the possibility of foreign entities printing millions of fraudulent mail-in ballots this November is highly unlikely.
According to comprehensive studies of public records detailing voter fraud in all US elections between 2000 and 2012, there were just 491 prosecutions for absentee ballot fraud.
A CNN review of data from a half-dozen recent primaries found there are much fewer examples of people fraudulently casting multiple ballots than there are cases of eligible voters who didn’t receive their mail ballots on time, an issue officials are working to address before November.

Rick Hasen, a University of California-Irvine professor and one of the nation’s top experts in election law, tweeted the idea of foreign governments counterfeiting ballots “defies common sense,” contrary to what Barr claimed.

“Of all the ridiculous schemes that have been floated by the President or AG Barr for how mail-in ballot fraud could affect the election, the possibility of a foreign entity swaying election by mailing fraudulent absentee ballots is the most ludicrous,”

Hasen added,

“The foreign government would have to do this at scale to produce thousands of votes in even the closest swing state to try to change the outcome. With everyone watching and many states allowing voters to track their ballots this becomes impossible.”

Mail Vote Doesn’t Help One Party

Studies of all-mail-in elections — the default in five states and sometimes allowed in 17 others — show that they increase overall turnout as well as turnout from more liberal-leaning young and African-American voters. At the same time, vote-by-mail also increases turnout from people in rural areas and older Americans, groups that tend to lean right.

Every Type Of Voter Uses Mail Vote

Mail-in ballots are a must for people homebound with disabilities and their caretakers, those who travel, anyone who unfortunately suffers from illness, and our military. (Thank you!) Mail vote is also used widely by senior citizens, rural areas and states that simply recognize it is more cost effective and convenient that funding polling sites. It is more important than ever for people who are at risk of contracting or spreading Covid-19. If you were asked to quarantine after testing positive, you still have the right to vote right? It’s also used by President Trump.

Trump voted by mail in the Florida primary.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll that found 72 percent of Americans, including 65 percent of Republicans, want a mail ballot option for November 3.

Many states are implementing mail vote guidance for Covid-19 like no excuse absentee ballot where excuses were required, and adding “Covid-19 impacted” to the set of reasons for excuse absentee ballot applications. Learn about Covid-19 election changes and stay up-to-date with our mail vote news feed. It changes quickly.

Is Blocking Mail Vote A Form Of Voter Suppression?

Yes, and especially during a pandemic. And especially during a time of record voter turn out, too few polling sites, and lines so long voters are locked out of the building before given the chance to cast their vote.

People rushing in and being told to get into any line before 6 pm. pic.twitter.com/eWjsM9Sfk1

— Matt Mencarini (@MattMencarini) June 23, 2020

Stopping eligible voters from voting, making it harder to vote, and putting up unnecessary obstacles to vote IS VOTER SUPPRESSION. So are lies misinforming citizens about voting.

A new Brennan Center poll finds that four out of five Americans believe states should give all voters the option of unexcused mail ballots during the November election.

Brennan Center also notes: Two-thirds of Americans — including 43 percent of Republicans and 65 percent of independents — also support allowing Election Day to take place over a time period of as much as two weeks to ensure that no one has to wait in long lines.

Yet, the president has made it clear that despite voting by mail himself multiple times, he does not support wide expansion of the practice.

He has tweeted a number of false claims about what states are doing, including saying it was illegal for the secretary of state of Michigan to mail all registered voters in that state ballot request forms, and misrepresenting California’s decision to mail all registered voters ballots.

Notably, Twitter decided to weigh in by adding a “fact check” label to his tweet about California’s decision.

Democrats all the way up to presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden have worried openly for months, if not years, about whether Trump was planting the seeds to be able to call the electoral process rigged or fraud ridden if he loses in November.

“The President is chipping away at voter confidence in our elections, which is a dangerous road to go down,” tweeted Barb Byrum, the county clerk of Ingham County, Michigan.