About Postal Mail

More and more people are receiving and casting their ballots by mail.  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 10 percent of all ballots cast in the 2000 presidential election were cast by mail. In 2012, 19 percent of voters cast a ballot by mail. In the 2014 midterms, data from the Survey of the Performance of American Elections found that around a quarter of all voters voted by mail.  In 2018, 23.1 percent of the ballots were cast by mail or as absentee votes.

One of the most dramatic changes in voting in the United States over the last two decades has been the growth in the number of voters casting ballots by mail with every successive election cycle."
Christopher B. Mann, "Mail Ballots in the United States: Policy Choice and Administrative Challenges"

The alternatives to traditional voting in person on Election Day are clearly growing in popularity. There are basically four types:

1. Traditional absentee voting by mail, which requires an excuse for why the voter cannot vote at a polling place on election day (20 states have this policy);
2. No-excuse absentee voting, in which voters request an absentee ballot before the election without needing to provide a reason (27 states have this policy);
3. Permanent absentee voting, in which voters file a standing request for a mail ballot for every future election; and
4. All-mail (or "vote-by-mail") elections, in which ballots are automatically mailed to all registered voters, to be returned by mail or in person (3 states have all-mail elections).

In 2014, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration made recommendations for improving the election process in the U.S. One of the recommendations was to expanding alternative ways of voting, such as mail balloting and in-person early voting. Another was, ensuring that ballots delivered by mail would arrive in a timely fashion and be tracked from delivery to return.

Voting by mail is here to stay, and it will continue to grow in significance. The votes cast by mail may turn out to make the difference in the 2020 election.

Voting by mail was once reserved for people who could not be present on election day, like travelers and members of the military stationed abroad, but now many states do not require an excuse for choosing to vote by mail, and a few states are actively encouraging voting by mail.

Voting by mail has grown exponentially over the past four decades. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 10 percent of all ballots cast in the 2000 presidential election were cast by mail. By 2012, the practice had nearly doubled, to 19 percent of voters. In the 2014 midterms, the Survey of the Performance of American Elections (SPAE) found that around a quarter of all voters voted by mail.

In 1972, only about 4 percent of ballots were cast by mail nationwide. The national average is now well over 20 percent, and in some states the average is much higher. In the 2010 election in California, for example, almost half the ballots were cast by mail, as compared to about 18% in 1990. In Oregon, nearly all ballots are now mail-in.

Not all voters who receive their ballots in the mail return them that way. The SPAE estimates that in 2014 around 1 out of every 5 mail ballots nationwide were returned by hand to an official location, like an election office, drop box, or polling place on Election Day, and not mailed back to the election official.  (Pew)