Explained: How postal voting works in the United States

Written by Om Marathe, edited by Explained Desk | New Delhi | Posted: Aug 2, 2020 12:03:18 PM United States Postal Service trash cans loaded with ballots lie in safety cages at an Elections Council facility in New York City. (AP)

While the US presidential election is set to take place in November, many states are making postal voting options more readily available due to the coronavirus pandemic that has hit the United States harder than any other country.

President Donald Trump, however, was adamantly opposed to mailing options, tweeting Thursday, With universal postal voting (not postal voting, which is fine), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE election and FRAUDULENT of history. It will be a great embarrassment for the United States. Delay the elections until people can vote properly, safely and securely ???

Earlier, Trump had even said that if the plans to expand postal voting were successful, you would never have an elected Republican in this country again.

Vote in the midst of the coronavirus

Since the novel coronavirus pandemic reached the United States, many have pushed for increased use of postal voting as opposed to in-person voting to ensure social distancing, a critical measure adopted around the world to end the ‘epidemic.

President Trump, the Republican Party, has resisted these efforts with his lawmakers and national and federal court appointees working against the expansion of postal voting.

Republicans argued that postal voting could increase the risk of voter fraud and accused Democrats of using the pandemic as a pretext for further electoral reforms. Earlier this week, Trump reported on a rigged election and that votes, especially in New York state, were missing.

Experts, however, called these fears exaggerated and insisted that such malpractice is extremely rare in the United States.

Along with universal postal voting (and not postal voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE and FRAUDULENT election in history. It will be a great embarrassment for the United States. Delay the elections until people can vote properly, safely and securely ???

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020

Difference between postal voting and postal voting

Even before his tweet on Thursday, Trump repeatedly criticized postal voting while defending postal voting, a distinction rejected by several experts who say the process is almost the same for both; their difference is mainly due to the terminology used by individual states.

Unlike India, where the Constitution provides for a separate electoral commission for regulation and independent from the executive within government, all U.S. federal, state, and local elections are held directly by the governments of individual states.

According to the White House website, the US Constitution and laws give states a great deal of latitude in how they administer elections, resulting in varying rules across the country.

What the different states stipulate

While every state allows postal voting, some only do so under certain circumstances.

In 17 states, mostly in the South and Northeast, voters receive mail ballots if they provide an excuse as to why they cannot be present in person on election day.

READ | Donald Trump wants the US elections to be postponed. It’s possible?

FILE – Cages filled with ballots in United Postal Service bins lie behind a worker at a New York Election Council facility (AP / File)

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have no excuse for absentee voting, where voters can get a postal vote without providing a justification, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

The states of Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington voted by mail, where each registered voter receives a ballot without a request.

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The 2020 election

Although individual states continue to have different postal voting rules, most of them are making those options more easily accessible due to the pandemic and are gradually moving closer to postal voting.

According to federal election data, about 24 percent of the vote in the 2016 election, which Trump won, was by mail. This year, that proportion is expected to increase significantly.

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