Politics

Mail-In Voting Begins As First State Sends Out Ballots Weeks From Election Day

Voting center. (Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)

Alabama began sending out the first mail-in ballots to voters on Wednesday, over 50 days out from the November election, according to CNN.

Alabama residents who requested mail-in ballots will be the first to lock in their vote for the upcoming local, state and presidential races, with Wisconsin rolling out their mail-in ballots the following week on September 19, CNN reported. North Carolina was supposed to have kickstarted mail-in voting, but the state was held up by a court order to reprint their ballots after former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race and appealed to have his name be taken off.

Officials in over 20 states will start sending mail-in ballots later this month, including Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Mississippi, Oregon and Vermont, according to NBC.

The National Association of State Election Directors and other officials voiced concerns in a Wednesday letter about the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) capacity to process and deliver the millions of ballots in time. In previous election cycles, mail-in ballots arrived at election offices several days past the counting deadline despite being postmarked in time, the election officials said.

“We have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns,” the letter reads. “In fact, many of the issues raised by election officials are echoed in the recent findings of the USPS Office of Inspector General Audit.”

Requirements for mail-in voting vary by state. Alabama residents need to request a ballot ahead of time and provide an excuse to cast their votes ahead of the November election, according to the CNN voter handbook.

In total, 14 states require an excuse to vote with mail-in ballots, including Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, South Carolina, Delaware, Connecticut and New Hampshire, according to a CNN mail-in voting map.

Mail-in voting has become increasingly popular compared to previous election cycles, largely due to the pandemic.

In 2020, nearly half of voters said they cast their vote with mail-in ballots, according to the Pew Research Center, while roughly a quarter of the votes in 2016 were cast in the same manner. Mail-in voting is less popular in Alabama, making up just 3% of the votes being cast in 2022, according to NBC.