Elections of usa. Elections in the United States

Absentee and mail voting[edit]

Sorting vote by mail envelopes, San Jose, Santa Clara County, California, 2018
Main article: Postal voting in the United States
Voters unable or unwilling to vote at polling stations on Election Day may vote via absentee ballots, depending on state law. Originally these ballots were for people who could not go to the polling place on election day. Now some states let them be used for convenience, but state laws still call them absentee ballots.^[11] Absentee ballots can be sent and returned by mail, or requested and submitted in person, or dropped off in locked boxes. About half the states and territories allow "no excuse absentee," where no reason is required to request an absentee ballot; others require a valid reason, such as infirmity or travel.^[11] Some states let voters with permanent disabilities apply for permanent absentee voter status, and some other states let all citizens apply for permanent status, so they will automatically receive an absentee ballot for each election.^[12] Otherwise a voter must request an absentee ballot before the election occurs.
In Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington state, all ballots are delivered through the mail; in many other states there are counties or certain small elections where everyone votes by mail.^[11][13]
Americans living outside the United States, including members of the armed force stationed overseas, may register and vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Almost half the states require these ballots to be returned by mail. Other states allow mail along with some combination of fax, or email; four states allow a web portal.^[14]
A significant measure to prevent some types of fraud has been to require the voter's signature on the outer envelope, which is compared to one or more signatures on file before taking the ballot out of the envelope and counting it.^[15] Not all states have standards for signature review.^[16] There have been concerns that signatures are improperly rejected from young and minority voters at higher rates than others, with no or limited ability of voters to appeal the rejection.^[17][18] For other types of errors, experts estimate that while there is more fraud with absentee ballots than in-person voting, it has affected only a few local elections.^[19][20]
Following the 2020 United States presidential election, amidst disputes of its outcome, as a rationale behind litigation demanding a halt to official vote counting in some areas, allegations were made that vote counting is offshored. Former Trump Administration official Chris Krebs, head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the election, said in a December 2020 interview that, "All votes in the United States of America are counted in the United States of America."^[21]
One documented trend is that in-person votes and early votes are more likely to lean to the Republican Party, while the provisional ballots, which are counted later, trend to the Democratic Party. This phenomenon is known as blue shift, and has led to situations where Republicans won on election night only to be overtaken by Democrats after all votes were counted.^[22] Foley did not find that mail-in or absentee votes favored either party.^[23]
Early voting[edit]
Main article: Early voting § United States
Early voting is a formal process where voters can cast their ballots prior to the official Election Day. Early voting in person is allowed in 33 states and in Washington, D.C., with no excuse required.^[24]