Postal voting can trace its roots to soldiers voting away from home during the Civil War and World War II. In the late 1800s, some states extended postal voting to civilian voters under certain conditions, but it wasn’t until 2000 that Oregon became the first state to switch to a postal voting system. Here’s everything you need to know about the history of postal voting and postal voting.
What does the Constitution say about voting?
There is no step-by-step guide to voting in the United States Constitution. Article 1, section 4, states that it is for each state to determine “the times, places and manner of holding the elections”. This openness allowed the voting process in the United States to evolve as the country’s needs changed.
The Founding Fathers voted with their voices – literally. Until the beginning of the 19th century, all eligible voters expressed their “Viva Voce” (voice vote) in public. While the number of people eligible to vote at that time was small and mostly comprised of white male landowners, the turnout hovered around 85%, largely due to the attractive voting parties organized in the polling stations.
The first paper ballots appeared in the early 19th century and were originally blank pieces of paper. By the mid-1800s, they had gone to the other extreme: political parties were printing tickets with each candidate’s names pre-filled according to party lines. It wasn’t until 1888 that New York and Massachusetts became the first states to adopt preprinted ballots bearing the names of all candidates (a style called “Australian ballot” after where it was created). By then, another voting revolution had taken place: the absentee vote.
READ MORE: Elections in Colonial America were huge parties filled with alcohol
Civil war and absentee ballots
Union Army soldiers lined up to vote in the 1864 election during the American Civil War.
Provisional Archives / Getty Images
The first widespread case of postal voting in the United States took place during the Civil War. The logistics of a wartime election were daunting: “We cannot have a free government without elections,” President Abraham Lincoln told a crowd outside the White House in 1864, “what if rebellion could force us? to give up or postpone a national election, it could rightly claim to have already defeated and ruined us.
“Lincoln was concerned about the outcome of the midterm elections,” says Bob Stein, director of the Center for Civic Leadership at Rice University. Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin Stanton pointed out that there were a lot of Union soldiers who could not vote, so the president encouraged states to allow them to vote from the field. (There was precedent for Lincoln’s wish; Pennsylvania became the first state to offer postal voting for soldiers during the War of 1812.)
WATCH: Lincoln on HISTORY Vault
In the 1864 presidential election between Lincoln and George McClellan, 19 states in the Union changed their laws to allow soldiers to vote by absentee. Some states have allowed soldiers to appoint a proxy to vote for them in their homes, while others have set up polling stations themselves in the camps. About 150,000 out of a million soldiers voted in the election, and Lincoln won 78% of the military vote.
In the late 1800s, several states offered civilians the option of postal voting, although they had to offer an accepted excuse, most often distance or illness. Passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 and the 19th Amendment in 1920 increased the number of eligible voters in the United States, but it would take another war to propel absentee voting into the national spotlight.
Voting by absentees during World War II
GI is on the battle fronts in Italy, Captain William H. Atkinson of Omaha, Nebraska, swears to Cpl. Tito Fargellese from Boston, Massachusetts, before Fargellese voted for the 1944 election.
Bettmann Archives / Getty Images
Absentee voting entered the national conversation during World War II, when “Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman encouraged the military vote,” says Stein. The Soldiers’ Voting Act of 1942 allowed all members of the military overseas to send their ballots from overseas. Over 3.2 million postal votes were cast during the war. The law was amended in 1944 and expired at the end of the war.
Legislation passed over the next few decades made it easier for military personnel and their families to vote: the Federal Aid Voting Act of 1955; the Uniformed and Abroad Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) in 1986; and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, or MOVE Act, signed by President Barack Obama in 2009.
READ MORE: These black female heroes made sure American forces got their mail during WWII
States expand mail voting
“Before the civil rights movement, it was largely members of the military, expatriates, and people with severe disabilities or who could not come to their jurisdiction who were allowed to vote by absentee,” says Stein. While most historians cite California as the first state to introduce absentee voting without excuse, Michael Hanmer, research director at the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland, says it is in fact the Colorado, who made the switch in 1974.
Other Western states quickly followed: “Western states are newer, have the largest rural areas, the most land, and do the most pioneering work,” says Lonna Atkeson, director of the Center for the Study of Voting , elections and democracy at the University of New Mexico. “Their progressive values have played a role in their political culture.”
Oregon became the first state to switch to postal voting exclusively in 2000. Washington followed in 2011.
WATCH: America 101: Why do we vote on the first Tuesday?
Election 2020: which states offer postal voting?
The 2020 presidential election is taking place amid the coronavirus pandemic, when concerns over transmission of the virus into crowds led lawmakers to rethink the rules for appearing in person to vote. For the first time in history, at least 75% of Americans can vote by absenteeism.
In the 2020 elections:
Thirty-four states in the United States offer mail-in voting without excuse or allow registered voters to cite COVID-19 as a reason for absentee voting.
· Nine states and Washington, DC send all ballots directly to voters: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Nevada, New Jersey, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.
Seven states – Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas – require voters to give a reason other than COVID-19 to vote away.
How to vote by mail
Mail-in ballots can be divided into two categories: mail-in ballots, typically requested by people who cannot vote in person for physical reasons, and mail-in ballots, which are automatically provided to all eligible voters in states with all postal voting systems.
The rules for postal voting vary from state to state.
“When are the ballots due? Postmark? Federalism is a beautiful thing, but it’s complex because each state does something different, ”says Atkeson. “Ultimately, access and security allow for a well-organized election and make people feel their votes are counted.”
Learn more: How Americans Have Voted Throughout History: From Voices to Screens
