Mail-in voting

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

A person in a deep blue shirt holds forward a circular red, white, and blue sticker with stars and an image of an envelope that reads I voted by mail.

Map of the United States showing mail-in voting rules by state: universal mail-in states in gold, no excuse required in mauve, and excuse required in dark purple.

Portrait of Jefferson Davis wearing a dark suit and bow tie, with short wavy hair and a pointed beard, set against a blue oval background.

Pres. Abraham Lincoln, in February 1865, just after his 1864 reelection and just before his April 1865 assassination

President Calvin Coolidge sits at a small desk outdoors, filling out a ballot to vote by mail, with papers and an inkwell on the table.

Grace Goodhue Coolidge sits at a small desk outdoors, filling out a ballot to vote by mail, with an empty chair beside her and the White House in the background.

Alice Fujinaga and two other women stand at a wooden counter holding papers as a man seated behind the counter writes, inside Tule Lake Relocation Center, 1942.

Two U.S. Army Air Forces personnel at a desk discuss overseas voting at Hickam Field, Oahu in 1944; one sits with papers, the other stands with an AAF Voting Service bag.

President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan sit at a wooden table filling out absentee ballots at their Rancho del Cielo home in California.

Mail-in voting: Media

Should mail-in voting be widely available?

Images

A person in a deep blue shirt holds forward a circular red, white, and blue sticker with stars and an image of an envelope that reads I voted by mail.

Should mail-in voting be widely available?

Explore the ProCon debate.

© asiraj/stock.adobe.com

Portrait of Jefferson Davis wearing a dark suit and bow tie, with short wavy hair and a pointed beard, set against a blue oval background.

Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States (pictured), and Vice President Alexander H. Stephens were first elected provisionally in October 1861. The popular vote a month later confirmed the administration.

Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com

Pres. Abraham Lincoln, in February 1865, just after his 1864 reelection and just before his April 1865 assassination

Pres. Abraham Lincoln, in February 1865, just after his 1864 reelection and just before his April 1865 assassination

Portrait by Alexander Gardner.

© Frederick Hill Meserve Collection/National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (NPG.81.M1)

President Calvin Coolidge sits at a small desk outdoors, filling out a ballot to vote by mail, with papers and an inkwell on the table.

Pres. Calvin Coolidge completes a mail-in ballot on October 30, 1924.

National Photo Company Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2016838756)

Grace Goodhue Coolidge sits at a small desk outdoors, filling out a ballot to vote by mail, with an empty chair beside her and the White House in the background.

First Lady Grace Coolidge completes a mail-in ballot on October 30, 1924

National Photo Company Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2016838753)

Alice Fujinaga and two other women stand at a wooden counter holding papers as a man seated behind the counter writes, inside Tule Lake Relocation Center, 1942.

On November 2, 1942, Alice Fujinaga, formerly of Seattle, Washington, received an absentee ballot in the Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California.

National Archives, Washington, D.C. (536514)

Two U.S. Army Air Forces personnel at a desk discuss overseas voting at Hickam Field, Oahu in 1944; one sits with papers, the other stands with an AAF Voting Service bag.

The U.S. Air Force notes that this September 9, 1944 image shows “Two GIs discuss[ing] overseas votes for the national election [at] Hickam Field [in] Oahu, Hawaii.”

National Archives, Washington, D.C. (204978274)

President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan sit at a wooden table filling out absentee ballots at their Rancho del Cielo home in California.

Pres. Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan fill out absentee ballots at their Rancho del Cielo home in California in 1988.

National Archives, Washington, D.C. (75856343)

Interactives

Map of the United States showing mail-in voting rules by state: universal mail-in states in gold, no excuse required in mauve, and excuse required in dark purple.

U.S. mail-in voting rules by state. States fall into one of three categories: universal, no excuse required, and excuse required mail-in voting.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

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