Resources

Registered voters in some legislative districts in Los Angeles County were subjected to universal voting by mail in the March 2020 primary. This research indicate that voter turnout increased by 3 to 4 percentage points for voters who do not automatically receive a mail ballot, and the increase is generally larger for registered partisan voters than those without a party affiliation.

In this paper, authors draw upon the 2016 and 2020 Cooperative Election Study to analyze the likelihood that Trump supporters: (1) voted by mail, (2) self-reported voting by mail, and (3) self-reported not voting by mail when they did (misreporting VBM). In 2020, Trump supporters were markedly less likely to cast a VBM ballot and were also significantly more likely to disclaim voting by mail when they actually did.

The survey included an expansive set of disability questions and validated voter turnout responses against state voter files. The analyses reveal a high disability incidence; large disability turnout gaps; and even greater gaps estimated with validated compared to reported turnout. Much smaller turnout gaps and better voting experiences are found in the states that conduct their elections with all-mail voting.

This research's findings suggest that signature validation, which serves as a primary safeguard for mail voting integrity, may be systematically influenced by underlying biases

This research analyzes the demographics of voters whose mail ballots are rejected in Washington and Colorado. It finds that younger voters and voters of color are more likely to have their ballots rejected due to a non-matching signature; however, almost half of these rejections are ultimately incorrect and are cured by the voter. Additional findings show that the experience of having a ballot rejected in one election, even if the issue is resolved through ballot curing, reduces the voter’s likelihood of participating in subsequent elections.

This research finds that when people vote by mail, they are more likely to successfully identify the candidates that are best aligned with their preferences.

In this paper, Carter takes an in-depth look at absentee/mail-in voting pre and post COVID-19 pandemic. The paper recommends that more states should expand their access to voting by passing no-excuse absentee/mail-in voting laws due to the positive impacts of expanded mail voting policies on voters during the pandemic.

The results indicate that state mail voting laws (universal mail voting or no-excuse absentee mail voting) and more widespread use of mail voting ballots can boost turnout in primary elections, particularly when combined with open or nonpartisan primary rules.

In this paper, authors explore whether reliance on algorithms or a hybrid system for verifying signatures allay or increase citizens' confidence in using them in elections. They find that respondents similarly trust automated and non-automated systems, but do not have a clear conception of the confidence threshold, set by policymakers, necessary for rejecting ballots.

This research conducts a systematic review of the European mail voting systems to identify a set of best practices for making voting by mail as easy as possible, while safeguarding the secrecy and security of the vote.

This research finds evidence which implicates evaluator bias as the primary driver of racial disparities in vote by mail signature verification.

In this paper, authors examine ballot tracking use, local election official communication related to
ballot tracking options, how ballot tracking impacts ballot rejection, and the impact of ballot
tracking on voters’ information levels and attitudes about election integrity.