Vote-by-Mail
A look at vote-by-mail reforms proposed in 2024
What is Vote-by-Mail?
Vote-by-mail (VBM) is an umbrella term referring to reforms that increase access to mail ballots, also known as absentee ballots. States offer a spectrum of options to voters who can’t vote in-person on Election Day, and the accessibility of absentee ballots differs by state. Some states require voters to provide an excuse for voting absentee, like work travel or medical restrictions. Some states don’t require an excuse at all. Some states will allow voters to sign up to automatically receive mail ballots for each election, called a permanent absentee voter list. Eight states, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington, are full vote-by-mail states, meaning every voter receives a ballot in the mail, which can be sent back via mail or dropped off at a ballot drop box. There’s really a continuum of mail ballot access, from most restrictive (excuse required, after an absentee ballot application is requested and submitted) to least restrictive (ballots mailed directly to all registered voters), and bills that move the states along that continuum are tracked in this section.
Many of the shifts made by states in 2020 towards greater VBM access have also had a ripple effect in legislatures around the country.
Why are we tracking it?
Election reformers pay attention to mail voting policies because access to ballots is a voting rights issue, and the COVID-19 pandemic revealed to many what voters with disabilities have long known: voting by mail is an essential element of ballot access. In this report, we include bills that change the access of absentee ballots, from the application process to qualifying excuses, to permanent lists and full vote-by-mail. We also highlight bills designed specifically to provide access to absentee ballots for voters with disabilities and older voters. There are many components of the absentee voting process that are not included, but our goal is to track major reform proposals that move states further along the VBM continuum (no excuse, qualifying excuses, permanent absentee list, increased disability access) or restrict access.
Categories and definitions:
- Absentee qualifying excuses: A bill that changes or expands the list of qualifying excuses to vote absentee, including no-excuse absentee voting.
- Universal VBM: Allows states to hold elections entirely by mail, often for ease of access for small or widespread rural populations that would traditionally have to travel long distances to a polling place.
- Permanent absentee list: A program where voters can register to automatically receive absentee ballots at every election. We include bills that create a permanent absentee voter list, or substantially change the process for joining or maintaining the list.
Analysis
RepresentUs began working on vote-by-mail (VBM) in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic revealed major access gaps and issues, especially for voters with disabilities and with conditions that affect the immune system. Suddenly, all states had to re-evaluate their VBM process and resources to ensure voting would still be accessible amidst the ongoing pandemic. While states rose to the challenge, President Trump’s false claims of mail voting fraud during the 2020 election have continued to impact the legislation around VBM that we see in states to this day. In the 2023 version of this report we found this can restrict access in subtle ways, like adding new hurdles or requirements to further complicate the process, or in major changes to vote-by-mail access, which is what we focus on in this report. Still, many of the shifts made by states in 2020 towards greater VBM access have also had a ripple effect in legislatures around the country.
2023 legislative referral approved by voters in 2024. One of this category’s biggest developments in 2024 passed in the Democratic trifecta of Connecticut, but not via a state house. Back in 2023, the legislature passed HJR 1, which referred a constitutional amendment to allow no-excuse absentee voting to the 2024 general election ballot. Voters passed the amendment with a resounding majority of 58%, and Connecticut now joins 28 other states that allow no-excuse absentee voting.
Other VBM changes. The Republican trifecta in Mississippi was the only other state to pass major VBM changes into law, and it was more of a mixed bag for access. Mississippi’s HB 1406 made many changes to the absentee voting process in the state, including improving access to absentee voting by adding more qualifying excuses to vote by mail — specifically for registered voters who are incarcerated in a jail or prison but not convicted of a disenfranchising crime. However, it also restricted elements of absentee voting, by banning drop boxes and requiring the ballot envelope to be signed by a witness. In Wisconsin, with a Republican-controlled legislature and Democratic governor, lawmakers passed changes to absentee voting, but the legislation died on the governor’s desk. Gov. Tony Evers (D) vetoed multiple election-related pieces of legislation passed by the Republican majority, including two bills (AB 570 and 572) that would have prohibited clerks from fixing technical ballot errors and overhauled the process for absentee voting in nursing homes during a public health emergency. The legislation that passed across the country was spread out across different VBM policy areas, but looking at the party control of government in those states helps give us more context as to why.
More states considering Permanent Absentee Lists. One policy trend we noted in this category pertained to states introducing bills on Permanent Absentee Lists. Voters who sign up for a state’s Permanent Absentee List automatically receive all future ballots by mail. Last year we tracked 15 bills from six states about Permanent Absentee Lists, and this year we tracked about the same amount of bills but from more than twice as many states. We saw repeat introductions in three red states and two blue states [AZ, GA, MN, NY, and OK], and new introductions in four more red states and five more blue states [FL, HI, IN, KS, MA, MI, NJ, PA, UT].
Even though Trump won in 2024 and cries of mail ballot fraud have calmed down on a national level, the reality in states is that these arguments are still helpful and used to suppress access to vote by mail