5 Facts About Voting By Mail In 2020

ACROSS AMERICA — Voting by mail has come under the microscope this election season, with the coronavirus pandemic prompting more states to embrace the method as a way to keep crowds from gathering at polling places.

More than 80 percent of American voters will have the opportunity to vote by mail in the Nov. 3 election, by far the most in U.S.history.

Absentee voting is allowed for all in 34 states, with ballots mailed directly to all voters in nine states plus the District of Columbia and now only six states still require an excuse to vote by mail.

President Donald Trump's re-election campaign has brought legal action against a number of states that have enhanced their mail-in voting process. The campiagn's lawsuit against New Jersey states that Gov. Phil Murphy "created a system that will violate eligible citizens' right to vote.

"By ordering universal vote-by-mail, he has created a recipe for disaster," the suit continues. "Fraudulent and invalid votes dilute the votes of honest citizens and deprive them of their right to vote in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment."

But the governor confirmed the state is working on a hybrid voting model that will continue to allow people to vote in-person if desired.

"If vote-by-mail is good enough for the President, it’s good enough for us," Murphy said Wednesday, referring to Trump himself voting by mail in Florida.

"As the President and his team try to delegitimize our election and impact the health and safety of millions of New Jerseyans, we will defend our rights vigorously and we will not back down."

Similar lawsuits by the Trump administration were filed in Nevada and Pennsylvania.

The lawsuits came a day after legal filings in 20 states to prevent the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out operational changes they say will jeopardize the mail-in ballot process for the November election.

They were followed almost immediately by a statement from U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who said that all policy or operational changes will be suspended until after the election.

Here are five things to know about the mail-in voting practice:

1. What Is Mail-In Voting?

The terms "mail-in voting," "mail voting," "voting by mail," and "absentee voting" are all names for a wide range of policies aimed at offering more flexibility to voters who either prefer or need to cast a vote in a location other than a polling place.

In 2020, all states allow at least a portion of voters to vote by mail, but policies on who may do so vary widely depending on where you are in the country.

Voting by mail is by no means a new process in the United States.

The practice first took place during the Civil War, when both Union and Confederate soldiers were allowed to complete ballots from the battlefield, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Election Data and Science Lab.

It was not until 1980, however, that California became the first state to allow eligible voters to request absentee ballots for "any reason at all," according to the MIT lab.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, 16 states still required an "excuse" to cast an absentee ballot; but the majority of them have eased those restrictions in past months, according to the nonprofit Open Source Election Technology Institute.

Now, only six states require the excuse: Indiana, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and South Carolina.

2. Some States Had Already Conducted Elections By Mail Only

Five states already had conducted their elections entirely by mail: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

Many others have instituted changes to make it easier for voters to gain access to mail-in ballots in 2020. Wisconsin and Michigan are among the swing states deciding this year to send absentee ballot requests to nearly all voters before November's election.

More than half of the U.S. states — 27 — already provided "no excuse" absentee by-mail voting before the pandemic, according to Open Source Election Technology Institute. Four more have been added to the list in the last few months.

Several other states have eased restrictions in 2020 on access to mail-in voting due to concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.

3. Most Americans Favor It, Polls Show

Voting by mail was already on the increase before the coronavirus created an added emphasis to consider it.

About 25 percent of all voters cast their vote by mail in the 2018 midterms, which is more than double the rate of mail voting from 20 years ago, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A poll by Politico/Morning Consultant in early August shows 58 percent of respondents favor having the ability "to vote by mail in elections this year.” That number is a dozen percentage points down from a Pew Research Center finding in April that about 70 percent of Americans want the option to vote by mail.

Democrats overwhelmingly favor allowing all voters to vote by mail if they want to — 87 percent — including 63 percent who strongly favor the measure, according to the Pew Center poll. On the other hand, 49 percent of Republicans support allowing universal voting by mail, whereas 50 percent oppose it.

4. The Facts On Fraud

Trump has made his opinion on mail-in ballots very clear in the buildup to the 2020 general election. The president has repeatedly said that widespread mail-in voting this year would lead to "the most rigged election."

What does the data say about the frequency of fraudulent balloting?

A recent analysis from the Washington Post, conducted with the nonprofit Electronic Registration Center, found that officials identified 372 possible cases of double voting or voting on behalf of a dead person out of around 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections.

Additionally, in the more than 250 million ballots that have been cast nationwide over the past 20 years, just 143 criminal convictions for election fraud have taken place, according to Amber McReynolds, the CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute, and Charles Stewart, the director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.

That figure averages out to one case per state every six or seven years.

5. How States Have Handled More Mail-In Ballots

The increase in requested mail-in ballots hasn't come without its problems.

According to officials in Maryland, where all registered voters were supposed to get ballots in the mail automatically for the state's June 2 primary, about 160,000 ballots — approximately 5 percent of the total sent out — were not delivered.

To give perspective on 160,000 people within a state missing out on the chance to vote, Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes.

Stacey Abrams, a former candidate for Georgia governor, said she also experienced an issue with her mail-in ballot when Georgia voted June 9.

"Although I applied for it fairly early in the process, when it finally arrived, the return envelope was sealed," Abrams told CBS News. "I tried to steam it open because I watched a lot of 'Perry Mason.' It didn't work. And so I had to go vote in person."

New York also had an issue with mail-in ballots in its June primary, one that landed in court and ended with thousands of ballots that had originally been rejected because they weren't properly postmarked being counted as long as they were sent within two days of the election.

Plans to use ballot drop boxes have taken off amid this election year due to both the pandemic and lack of faith in the U.S. Postal Service. Officials in Chicago this week said more than 50 of them will be placed in Cook County for the 2020 general election.

What Do Trump And Biden Think?

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden favors all mail-in ballots, the Pro-Con Britannica states on its 2020 presidential election guide.

"It's an easier way for people to vote," the Democratic candidate said.

"We should be beginning to plan that in each of our states …. I think it’s worth looking at, quickly."

But Trump says mail-in voting shouldn't be encouraged.

"You should vote at the booth," he said. "And you should have voter ID, because when you have voter ID, that’s the real deal."

Patch Editor Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on the Across America Patch