Concerns about the potential health risks of in-person voting during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased demand by voters for vote by mail and consideration by many states to temporarily expand vote by mail for the November election.
This guide is the most comprehensive aggregation of publicly available resources regarding vote by mail, designed primarily for election officials considering expansion of vote by mail and others seeking a deeper understanding of the current vote-by-mail landscape and expansion policies under consideration in many states. It includes (i) overviews of the various types of vote-by-mail systems and state-by-state adoption, (ii) vote-by-mail policy responses to COVID-19, (iii) best practices, instruction guides, and examples to assist the implementation and expansion of every aspect of vote by mail, from ballot applications and election material design to signature verification and vote tallying, (iv) research on vote by mail, and (v) links to election litigation trackers that include many pending vote-by-mail related cases.
Guide Contents:
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Introduction
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The National Vote-By-Mail Landscape
- Types of Vote by Mail and Variations Across States
- Rates of Mail Voting
- Excuse-Required and No-Excuse-Required Vote by Mail
- All-Mail Elections
- The Debate: A Few Example Op-Eds On Vote by Mail
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Vote-By-Mail Policy Responses to COVID-19
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Resources for Implementing Vote-By-Mail
- Vote by Mail Overviews
- Scaling Up the Capacity of Vote-by-Mail Systems
- Envelope Design
- Application for Vote by Mail
- Mailing Ballots to Voters
- Return of Completed Ballots
- Processing Returned Ballots
- Vote By Mail Tallying
- Languages/Translations Ballots/Envelopes
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Research on Vote-By-Mail
- General
- Assessing the Integrity of Vote By Mail
- Impact of Vote by Mail
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Vote-By-Mail Litigation