Absentee / Mail-in Voting

All states have some form of absentee or mail-in voting due to federal requirements. These voters normally include military and overseas citizens, voters with disabilities and students who reside in a different state. For example, absentee or mail-in ballots are sent to these military and overseas voters 45 days prior to federal elections. However, absentee or mail-in voting is often limited by states to a number of valid excuses based on age, absentee status or an inability to vote on Election Day.

Some states have a greater number of reasons and valid excuses to vote absentee ballots by mail or in-person in an election office. A number of states have no-excuse absentee or mail voting. Lastly, a number of states have implemented an entire method of mail-in balloting that includes return of ballots to secure boxes or by postal mail. Oregon instituted an all-mail-in balloting system in 1998 and other states like Washington and Colorado have instituted similar all mail ballot methods of voting.

Mail-in and absentee balloting provides certain vulnerabilities to the electoral system:

  • One stated general purpose for no-excuse absentee or mail ballot voting is to increase convenience and reduce long lines on Election Day. However, “Election Day” has become “Election Month,” which has increased the overall costs of election administration. County election offices that must process a large number of mailed ballots will experience significant delays in releasing official election results. A month or more of voting dramatically increases the overall costs to political campaigns for poll watching and get-out-the-vote efforts prior to Election Day.
  • Mail-in ballots are not cast in the secure polling place where precinct poll workers can confirm addresses and verify identification. A great deal of voter fraud and abuse of absentee and mail-in ballots has been documented across the country. Absentee or mail-in balloting may spur a short-term increase in turnout in local elections; however, there is no evidence that voting by mail increases overall turnout for the long term in general elections.
  • Absentee or mail-in balloting requires the use of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to transmit and return the ballot. This often causes delays to the election office. Citizens in states that use mail-in ballots often authorize the return of ballots to secure mail boxes that voters can use if they distrust the postal service.

A number of states authorize or require in-person absentee voting with verification by voter ID, and some states require a voter ID at the time of absentee or mail-in ballot request or return.

Alternatively, many states that allow absentee or mail-in voting use signature comparison to verify the identity of the voter. Many believe that signature verification is error-prone and not uniformly implemented by election officials across the country. While signature verification does catch a small percentage of invalid ballots or voter fraud, the system often fails to identify a great many irregularities associated with absentee or mail-in voting. Alternatively, many argue that signature verification routinely disenfranchises thousands of voters when it is used to ferret out an invalid signature.

ACRU Commentary

News

New Mexico Legislator Seeks New Voter ID Law

ALBUQUERQUE - A state legislator is pushing for voter identification requirements in New Mexico. Cities and state around the country have enacted voter ID legislation. It's required in Albuquerque during city elections, and people in Hobbs recently passed a similar law. "Anybody who's not voting accurately by who they say they are, that's too many," Republican Rep. James Smith told KRQE News 13. Smith filed a bill that would require voters to produce government-issued photo IDs with some exceptions. People who don't bring their ID could still vote if they gave a social security number and date of birth. Smith's proposal would change not only how you vote in person, but also by mail. "This bill covers absentee ballots as well, where you have to prove who you are over absentee ballots and if there is a place for voter fraud, it's more likely in the absentee or the registration than it is in in person voting," Smith said.

Courts Strike Down Wisconsin, Texas Voter ID Laws

The U.S. Supreme Court late Thursday blocked Wisconsin from enforcing its strict voter identification law in November's election. By a 6-3 vote, the justices granted an emergency appeal from civil rights lawyers, who argued it was too late to put the rule into effect this year. Lawyers for the ACLU noted that the state had already sent out thousands of absentee ballots without mentioning the need for voters to return a copy of their photo identification. At nearly the same time, a federal judge in Texas struck down that state's new voter ID law on the grounds that it violated the constitutional right to vote and discriminated against racial minorities. Texas Atty. Gen. Gregg Abbott said the state would appeal. The Wisconsin and Texas cases were the two most closely watched tests of new voter rules this year. In both states, Republican-led legislatures sought to tighten the rules for voting and to require all registered voters who did not have a driver's license to obtain a photo ID card at a state motor vehicles office.

ACLU Sues over Pullback on Early Voting in Ohio

COLUMBUS - The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups filed a federal lawsuit on May 8 against Ohio's elections chief over limits to when voters can cast an early ballot in the perennial battleground state. Ohioans can cast an absentee ballot by mail or in person before Election Day without giving any reason. About 33 percent of those who voted in the 2012 presidential election cast an early ballot. The lawsuit filed in Columbus federal court claims that recent cuts to early voting will make it difficult for tens of thousands of residents to vote and will unfairly affect black voters, who the groups say are more likely to use weekend and evening hours to vote early in elections.

Maryland Woman Pleads Guilty to Vote Fraud

A Frederick County woman pleaded guilty to voter fraud after she was charged with signing her dead mother's name on an absentee ballot in the 2012 presidential election, the state prosecutor's office announced on Sept. 19. Elsie Virginia Schildt, 46, was sentenced to probation before judgment and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service in the first 120 days of her probation.

Two Somali Immigrants Charged with Double Voting in Minnesota

About 50 men and women packed a Rice County courtroom on August 27 as two Somali women pleaded not guilty to charges of voter fraud stemming from the general election last November. Farhiya Abdi Dool, 38, and Amina A Hassan, 31, each face one felony charge of unlawful voting for voting once by absentee ballot and once at a polling place during the 2012 general election. Each woman faces five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for the offense.