Postal voting in the United States

Postal voting in the United States, also referred to as mail-in voting or vote by mail,^[4] is a form of absentee ballot in the United States. A ballot is mailed to the home of a registered voter, who fills it out and returns it by postal mail or drops it off in-person at a secure drop box or voting center. Postal voting reduces staff requirements at polling centers during an election. All-mail elections can save money,^[5] while a mix of voting options can cost more.^[6] In some states, ballots may be sent by the Postal Service without prepayment of postage.^[7]

Research shows that the availability of postal voting increases voter turnout.^[8][9][10] It has been argued that postal voting has a greater risk of fraud than in-person voting, though known instances of such fraud are very rare.^[11] One database found absentee-ballot fraud to be the most prevalent type of election fraud (at 24%) with 491 reported prosecutions between 2000 and 2012 out of billions of votes were cast.^[12] Experts are more concerned with legally-cast mail-in ballots discarded on technicalities than with voter fraud.^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

As of 2022, eight states – California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington – allow all elections to be conducted by mail. Five of these states – Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington – hold elections "almost entirely by mail."^[18] Postal voting is an option in 33 states and the District of Columbia. Other states allow postal voting only in certain circumstances, though the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 prompted further discussion about relaxing some of those restrictions. After repeatedly asserting that mail-in voting would result in widespread fraud in the run up to the 2020 United States presidential election, President Donald Trump indicated he would block funding for the Postal Service necessary to ensure that postal votes would be processed securely^[19] and on time.^[20]

In September 2020, CNN obtained a Homeland Security Department intelligence bulletin asserting "Russia is likely to continue amplifying criticisms of vote-by-mail and shifting voting processes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine public trust in the electoral process."^[21] Motivated by false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, Republican lawmakers initiated a push to roll back access to postal voting.^[22]