Mail-in voting has become an increasingly popular choice for Americans to vote, yet it has come under fire with unfounded accusations of fraud and mistrust.
And they have done it in the last few days literally come under fire from the alleged perpetrators.
But despite these threats, election officials and law enforcement have worked diligently to ensure that those ballots are not only delivered and counted on time, but also free from fraud of any kind.
Board of Elections Director Tyler Burns holds a mail generator open at the board of elections office on Sept. 30, 2024, in Doylestown, Pa.
Hannah Beier/Getty Images, FILE
As of Tuesday, more than 25.6 million Americans have returned mail-in ballots and more than 65 million Americans, including military personnel stationed overseas, have requested an absentee ballot, according to the data. Election Lab at the University of Florida.
By the end of the 2020 election, more than 65 million votes had been cast by mail, however, experts noted that due to the pandemic, more voters chose this method.
Voting trends over the decades
ABC News, MIT Election Data and Science Lab
In the last two elections, former President Donald Trump has done it doubt on postal voting, arguing that postal ballots are not secure enough.
There is no evidence to support his claims, which have been refuted by various courts, election offices, auditors and other security checks in several elections.
Several studies have shown that vote-by-mail fraud is rare, and in those few cases, the perpetrator was punished, and the votes were never counted.
One such case occurred in North Carolina in the 2018 midterms, when Leslie McCrae Dowless, a political operative working for Republican House candidate Mark Harris, “defrauded voters by collecting incomplete ballots and then filling in the rest to favor the campaign candidate.” from to a report MIT Election Lab.
The incident led to a new election, and Dowless was convicted of fraud in 2020.
“Even many scholars who argue that fraud is generally rare agree that fraud with (ballot) voting appears to be more common than with in-person voting,” MIT Election Lab researchers said in a report.
Bill Nicholson casts a mail-in ballot on October 15, 2024, in Doylestown, Pa.
Hannah Beier/Getty Images
This year is no different when it comes to making sure those votes are cast and counted in a timely and accurate manner.
The first line of security happens at the election office.
Forty-two states require voters who vote by mail to apply for an absentee ballot, and those approval processes are extensive, depending. Brennan Center for Justicenon-profit public policy institute.
“Elections workers compare the application with the voter registration to ensure that each ballot is sent to the correct voter and that only one ballot is sent to each voter,” the nonprofit organization wrote in a report.
The remaining eight states and the District of Columbia mail ballots to all registered voters and allow them to vote by mail or in person.
“Frequent mailing helps keep voter registration records up-to-date so ballots can be mailed to eligible voters at their current address,” the Brennan Center said.
When voters cast their ballots and mail them in, there are more checks.
Ballots are sent in envelopes with unique tracking codes and barcodes that allow officials to track them. Several states allow voters to track their ballots.
A voter casts a ballot at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Oct. 23, 2024, in Phoenix.
Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images
The US Postal Service is required by law to give priority to election-related mail taken “extraordinary measures”, to carry out the shipments. According to the agency, this includes additional shipping and pickup, special pickups, specialized sorting plans at processing facilities to expedite delivery to election boards, and local ballot handling and transportation.
The USPS said 99.9% of ballots were delivered within one week in 2020 and 98.3% within three days.
USPS’s law enforcement division looks at mail fraud, including if a letter or package has been tampered with, and investigates any suspected cases.
Additionally, many states offer voters the option to mail their ballot in person to an election office, approved ballot box, or early voting location.
All mail-in ballots require at least one signature, and some, like Pennsylvania, also require an envelope. Most of the state’s election offices, 31 of them, use a signature verification system, and election workers verify signatures through multiple registers.
A person casts a mail-in ballot on Oct. 15, 2024 in Doylestown, Pa.
Hannah Beier/Getty Images
“Some officials receive training that law enforcement uses to detect forgery. If election workers are unsure whether the signatures match, many states require that ballots be sent to a bipartisan panel for a second examination,” the Brennan Center said.
The Brennan Center emphasized that the groups are made up of equal numbers of Republican and Democratic staffers.
If an error is detected, election officials in all 24 states must notify the voter of the error and allow them to correct the error by Election Day.
Pennsylvania does not have a statewide requirement to cure incorrect mail-in ballots, however, a 2022 court decision gave county election departments the ability to correct such errors.
