When Liz Grimes moved from her home in Greensboro, North Carolina, to Vietnam, she knew she wanted to remain active in her community. And that meant voting.
Like millions of other Americans, she had voted via absentee ballot in the past — because she was volunteering or traveling on Election Day, or due to the pandemic. Now it has become her only option.
“Having the ability to vote, no matter where in the world I am, has made me more appreciative of this right,” Grimes told Straight Arrow News. “It has shown me that voting can be done in a safe, secure manner that is convenient and simple, so more citizens can participate.”
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All states in the U.S. have some system in which ballots can be cast via mail for federal elections. But it’s not without controversy. Politicians and citizens alike have raised concerns about how the use of mail-in ballots can affect the process of ensuring accurate election results.
President Donald Trump said in August that the “Republican Party [is] going to do everything possible [to] get rid of mail-in ballots.”
But advocates say mail-in ballots allow all legally registered voters to participate in the democratic process, no matter their life circumstances.
“Without mail-in ballots, it is the most vulnerable folks in our community who aren’t able to drive to the polling location, who aren’t able to leave their assisted living home,” said Ashley Harris, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas.
People, she said, ”who are out of the county or who have recently given birth and are caring for a newborn baby or about to give birth, that still have a constitutional right to vote and should have voting accessible to them just as any other voter who has different privileges and is able to cast a ballot in person.”
Who votes via mail-in ballots?
In 2024, 29% of ballots were cast by mail, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Voters who are 65 or older were most likely to vote by mail, at 36.8%, making it the preferred method for seniors. Another 30.2% voted in person on Election Day, and 32.4% voted in person before then.
By demographic group, 46.5% of Asian voters cast their ballots by mail, followed by 33.7% of Hispanic voters and 29.2% of white voters.
That includes people living with disabilities, who historically have slightly lower voter turnouts than those without. The Census reported that 61% of voting-age citizens living with disabilities voted in the 2024 election; the rate among adults who do not have a disability was 66%.
While the Census did not break down how Americans with disabilities submitted their ballots, voters living with disabilities are far more likely to vote by mail, according to an analysis by the Election Assistance Commission and Rutgers University.
For voters living with disabilities who voted in person, 1 in 5 reported having difficulty doing so.
“We have used absentee ballot[s] in the past to free up time on Election Day so we could volunteer, or because we were traveling,” Grimes told SAN.
“Now that we live in Vietnam,” she said, “we continue to vote.”
Citizens living abroad, like Grimes, are eligible to vote, but far less likely to do so. In 2022, the Federal Voting Assistance Program reported that only 2.4% of the 2.8 million eligible voters living outside of the U.S. actually cast a ballot. And those largely came by mail.
“In general, mail ballots are important to protecting people’s constitutional right to vote and to equitably access that right,” Harris told SAN.
Mail-in ballot concerns
Trump sees things differently.
“Mail-in ballots are corrupt. Mail-in ballots, you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots,” he said during an August meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He shared plans to do away with the option, beginning with “an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt.”
This was not his first mention of executive orders on the topic. In March, Trump signed an executive order that will prevent states from including mail-in or absentee ballots received after Election Day toward final totals when electing members of Congress, the president or the vice president.
Ending mail-in ballots altogether would affect millions of eligible voters.
“If I did not have the right to vote in this manner, I would be completely disenfranchised,” Grimes told SAN.
Ballot verification and fraud stats
While the process for verifying mail-in and absentee ballots varies by state, every state uses some form of voter verification, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most rely on signature verification; some require notarization; and a few require only the voter’s signature.
The Heritage Foundation’s “Election Fraud Database” tracks alleged cases of voter fraud since 1982. Over the past 43 years, the foundation has logged about 1,600 such cases, varying in degree and method. Most resulted in criminal convictions.
That’s a small fraction of the 1.3 billion votes that have been cast in presidential elections since then, according to the American Presidency Project — about 0.00012%, according to an SAN analysis.
“By and large,” Harris told SAN, these cases involve “everyday voters who are simply trying to cast their ballot who are running into obstacles [while] doing so.”
Mail-in voting has a long history. In 1813, a Pennsylvania law enabled soldiers fighting in the War of 1812 to vote remotely, according to the Smithsonian.
Voter laws and mail-in ballots
The right of U.S. citizens to vote is governed by a combination of federal and state legislation, including provisions for casting ballots by mail and regulations designed to ensure accessibility.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act protects the rights of U.S. armed forces, their families and U.S. citizens living outside the United States to be able to register and cast their vote for federal elections via mail.
Section 202 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) required all states to allow eligible voters unable to vote in person to cast an absentee ballot for president or vice president. The act also stipulated that voters cannot have their right to vote denied on the basis of race and carved out rules for certain jurisdictions to offer bilingual vote-by-mail programs. Voters with difficulties reading or writing, due to disability or language fluency, can also be given help to cast their ballot by anyone they choose, as long as there is no conflict of interest.
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In the 2024 general election, 29% of the 154 million ballots cast were via mail.
“That applies both in person and with their mail-in ballot,” Harris told SAN.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act and Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act don’t specifically mention mail-in ballots, they do require states to provide solutions to ensure every eligible voter can cast their vote, no matter their ability. Mail-in-ballots check that box.
Every state has a way for voters to cast their ballots by mail, but each uses one of four methods. Some states automatically mail ballots to all eligible voters; others mail them only to those on a registered list. Several states require voters who wish to vote by mail to request a ballot for each election, and the remaining few set a list of requirements that citizens must meet to use mail-in ballots.
Before she moved to Vietnam, Grimes requested that a ballot be mailed to her in the years when she could not vote in person. Before sending back her completed ballot, a witness would sign the envelope to verify Grimes’ identity. The process is different now that she is abroad.
“Now, I utilize the overseas portal for casting my vote. I receive a secure link in my email. I open it and sign in. I verify that it is me. I attach a copy of my approved ID, and then I cast my vote,” she told SAN.
She could submit it via international mail, or print it out and return it to the U.S. Embassy, she said. But that would require a drop-off appointment and a long drive across a busy city.
“The portal is so much easier,” she said.
The Constitution empowers states to run federal elections as they see fit, with what’s known as the elections clause. The clause says that “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”
States set their own deadlines for when ballots must be received. Some require ballots to be postmarked or even received by Election Day, while others allow ballots to be counted if they arrive within a set period after Election Day.
