Mail-In Ballot

A mail-in ballot is a paper ballot delivered to a registered voter outside the polling place, typically by postal service, allowing the voter to mark their choices privately and return the ballot by mail, secure drop box, or in-person delivery to an election office. Mail-in voting is sometimes called absentee voting, postal voting, or vote-by-mail, though jurisdictions distinguish these terms in different ways.

Rules governing mail-in ballots vary widely:

• Excuse-required absentee voting: the voter must provide a qualifying reason (illness, travel, military service) to receive a mail ballot.
• No-excuse absentee voting: any registered voter may request a mail ballot without justification.
• Universal vote-by-mail: election officials automatically send ballots to all registered voters. Oregon was the first U.S. state to adopt this model statewide, following a 1998 ballot initiative. Washington, Colorado, Utah, Hawaii, Nevada, Vermont, California, and the District of Columbia have since adopted similar all-mail or mostly-mail systems.

Mail ballots typically include security features such as signature verification, barcoded return envelopes, secrecy sleeves, and witness or notary requirements in some states. Returned ballots are usually checked against voter rolls and signature files before being separated from their envelopes and counted.

Internationally, postal voting is well established in countries including Germany (Briefwahl), Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, where it has been available on demand since 2001. Australia and Canada offer postal voting for electors unable to attend a polling place.

Mail voting expanded sharply during the 2020 U.S. general election amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when roughly 43% of voters cast ballots by mail according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey. The shift made mail ballots a focal point in subsequent litigation and legislative debates over deadlines, drop boxes, signature-cure procedures, and ballot harvesting. Studies by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab and others have generally found mail voting does not systematically advantage either major U.S. party, though turnout effects vary by context.