Here’s how states changed their mail-in policies since 2000

Data Researcher/Curator

WASHINGTON —

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a lower court’s block on President Donald Trump’s executive order that restricts mail-ballot voting ahead of the midterm elections.

Trump signed the executive order in late March, calling for three changes to federal elections. The order calls for the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration to compile state citizenship lists to confirm the citizenship of voters for the upcoming election.

Trump also called for the postmaster general to require all mail-in and absentee ballots to be placed in secured ballot envelopes marked as “Official Election Mail” with a unique intelligent mail tracking barcode.

But the provision is getting pushback, with calls for states to provide the U.S. Postal Service with a list of voters who intend to vote by mail and to prohibit the Postal Service from mailing ballots to voters who were not on the list. USPS issued a 95-page plan on Friday laying out how it would comply with and implement the executive order.

For now, the emergency order temporarily prohibits the Postal Service from implementing the order. The justices did not decide the legality of Trump’s order, instead ruling the states that sued did not have the legal right to challenge the order.

Currently, eight states and the District of Columbia conduct their elections through universal mail-in voting. The Get the Facts Data Team examined how voting options, like mail-in ballots and early voting, have changed since 2000 and what it could mean for states.

Which states allow voting by mail?

Every U.S. state allows some level of mail-in voting or absentee ballots, but some require voters to provide a reason.

For the 2026 general election, 37 states and the District of Columbia allow voters to request and cast a mail ballot without providing a reason. These states also allow voters to cast ballots early in person before Election Day.

The availability of mail-in and early voting has increased since 2000, when only 21 states allowed voters to vote early in person or by mail without an excuse.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, 11 states temporarily expanded access to no-excuse mail-in voting in 2020. That year, the majority of states allowed voters to cast a mail ballot without an excuse. Mississippi was the only state that required voters to have a reason to vote by mail and did not offer early in-person voting.

Mail-ballot and voter turnout

Nearly one in three voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2024 general election, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. That was slightly down from the 2022 election, when nearly 32% of voters cast a mail ballot.

Voting by mail spiked during the 2020 election, with 43% of voters casting their ballots that way.

In-person voting was limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic and several states temporarily expanded access to mail-in voting. With more states allowing voters to vote by mail in 2020, voter turnout reached its highest turnout at 161.3 million.

The 2022 midterm election dropped to 112.1 million, reflecting a common trend of presidential elections drawing higher turnout than midterm elections.