Vote By Mail

How many mail-in votes are there in U.S. elections?

The percentage of Americans casting mail-in votes has increased in recent years. In 2020, during the middle of the COVID pandemic, 43% of voters cast a mail ballot. 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 2018. As of 2024, eight states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington) conduct elections entirely by mail.

How do states regulate vote by mail?

State policies concerning voting by mail vary along four dimensions:

• Whether a state allows early voting
• Whether voting by mail (absentee) requires an excuse or is available to everyone
• Whether ballots must be mailed back or can be put in a drop box
• Whether voters must return their ballot or someone else can do it.

Analysis by Everything Policy shown below divides states into three groups (Democrat-controled, Swing, and Republican-controlled) and, using data from the National Council of State Legislators, shows the percentage of each group with strict regulations in each area.

The data shows that only a few states do not have early voting (Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire). Further, while only a few Democrat-controlled and Swing states limit absentee voting, a near-majority of Republican states do so. Republican states are also much more likely to ban drop boxes and require voters to return their own ballots, either by mail or in a drop box if allowed. Additional analysis reveals that most of the Republican states with these limits in place are in the southeast United States.

What are the pros and cons of voting by mail and absentee voting?

Advocates of voting by mail and absentee voting argue that the method has three main advantages: increasing turnout, reducing costs to voters and local governments, and increasing informed voting. Several studies show that voting by mail has little impact on turnout. However, it can reduce costs insofar as local governments reduce the number of voting sites open on Election Day.

Some evidence suggests that vote-by-mail increases informed voting because voters are more likely to research individual races or candidates while filling in their ballots. Voting by mail also makes voting easier for some citizens, especially for the elderly and those with mobility constraints, as they do not have to visit a polling station on Election Day.

Opponents of mail-in voting argue that voting from home via mail-in ballot may increase the chances that a voter unintentionally omits required information or incorrectly fills out the form, leading to an increased rate of rejected mailed ballots.

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, in some cases attempting to sway the voter in a particular direction. 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.

Other 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. However, as we discuss here, there is limited evidence that voter fraud occurs in more than a few cases.

The Take-Away

• Over the last decade, the number of states allowing early voting, Vote-by-Mail, and no-excuse absentee voting has increased significantly. Current estimates are that the percentage of mail-in votes in 2024 will approach the 2020 pandemic levels.
• Thus far, this change in how Americans vote has occurred without any documented signs of increased voter fraud.
• Compared to Democrat-controlled and Swing states, Republican states (especially in the South) are more likely to limit mail-in voting.