More voting by mail, early in-person voting and other rules states adopted proved popular, but their future is under debate

More voting by mail, expanded early in-person voting and other changes states adopted for the pandemic helped a record number of Americans cast ballots in the 2020 general election. The nation is now debating what changes will stick and how voting might differ.Many states made it easier to vote before Election Day to prevent crowding and spreading Covid-19 at polling places. Changes included lengthening periods for voting in person, broader access to vote by mail and more sites for dropping off ballots. In many cases, Republicans and Democrats tussled over rules in state legislatures and courts, including over state deadlines for receiving ballots in the mail.Some fiercely contested states such as Pennsylvania, where President Trump and his GOP allies questioned the results after his loss to President-elect
Joe Biden,
are drawing battle lines over the rules going forward. Many Republicans say clearer rules are needed to bolster security and confidence, while Democrats oppose such proposals as trying to make it harder to vote.
In Georgia, voting by absentee ballots exploded particularly among Democratic voters, who helped tip the state for Mr. Biden. The Republican state Senate caucus said it would support limiting mail voting and outlawing drop boxes in future elections, citing concern about security.
Change in total turnout* from 2016 to 2020
AK
ME
+2 ppts.
NH
MA
VT
+4 ppts.
MN
NY
RI
MI
CT
ID
MT
ND
WA
+6 ppts.
+8 ppts.
IN
OH
PA
IA
WI
NJ
DE
WY
SD
OR
UT
+10 ppts.
MO
KY
WV
VA
IL
DC
MD
NE
CA
NV
CO
AR
TN
NC
SC
AZ
NM
KS
Highest
change
Hawaii
+14.3 ppts.
LA
MS
AL
GA
OK
FL
TX
HI
AK
ME
+2 ppts.
+4
+6
+8
+10
NH
MA
VT
MN
NY
RI
MI
CT
ID
MT
ND
WA
IN
OH
PA
IA
WI
NJ
DE
WY
SD
OR
UT
MO
KY
WV
VA
IL
DC
MD
NE
CA
NV
CO
AR
TN
NC
SC
AZ
NM
KS
LA
MS
AL
GA
OK
Highest
change
Hawaii
+14.3 ppts.
FL
TX
HI
+2 ppts.
+4
+6
+8
+10
AK
ME
VT
NH
MA
MN
MI
NY
CT
RI
WA
ID
MT
ND
IA
WI
IN
OH
PA
NJ
DE
OR
UT
WY
SD
MO
IL
KY
WV
VA
DC
MD
CA
NV
CO
NE
AR
TN
NC
SC
AZ
NM
KS
LA
MS
AL
GA
OK
FL
HI
TX
Georgias top election official, Secretary of State
Brad Raffensperger,
a Republican who has defended the integrity of the states 2020 election, proposed changes he said would boost public confidence. One would require photo identification to request an absentee ballot, something the state already mandates for in-person voting.
So that it doesnt matter if its the left or the right, everyone can trust the results, and no one can really start taking potshots over the results at the end of the day when a race is done, Mr. Raffensperger said in an interview.
Changes adopted to cope with the pandemic aided a record turnout of roughly 159 million Americans. Voters generally reported smooth experiences casting their ballots, according to a survey led by Charles Stewart, a political-science professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
About 99% of those who voted by mail said it was very or somewhat easy to cast their ballots, according to a national survey of 18,200 registered voters overseen by Prof. Stewart. Some 81% of mail voters said they were very or somewhat likely to vote by mail in the future.
More Democrats, 88%, said they were very or somewhat likely to vote by mail again, compared with 68% of Republicans.
Prof. Stewart said he expects many voters to keep voting by mail, though probably not as many as in this election. I think there will be less reeling back than the rhetoric is suggesting right now, Prof. Stewart said. State legislatures are going to discover that a lot of the security questions they have are based on exaggerated claims.
This year about 10 states loosened their rules to effectively allow any voter to vote by mail because of the public-health crisis. In many other states, requesting a mail ballot was already an option, and record numbers of voters availed themselves.
Four statesCalifornia, Nevada, New Jersey and Vermontplus the District of Columbia and most counties in Montana mailed every registered voter a ballot for the November election, a practice five other states had already adopted before the pandemic. California Secretary of State
Alex Padilla
and Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos, both Democrats, said they would support making the change permanent with careful planning.
Mr. Trump criticized expanded access to mail ballots before the election as creating opportunities for fraud. Since the Nov. 3 election, the president and his allies have questioned the outcome, launched legal challenges in Georgia and other key states won by Mr. Biden and in some cases urged state legislators to overturn the results.
The effort failed, with dozens of losses in state and federal courts. Attorney General
William Barr
said earlier this month that the Justice Department hasnt found evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the presidential election result. Federal agencies and state election officials said the election was secure. Still, many Trump supporters have said they distrust the election outcome.
In Washington state, which has conducted elections primarily by mail following a 2011 state law, Secretary of State
Kim Wyman
said she noticed a change this year, with more voters dropping off ballots at drop boxes, up to 72% from 57% in 2016.
I think a lot of that was because of the rhetoric that was coming out of the White House and the Republican Party in general about, you know, Voting by mail is not secure, Ms. Wyman, a Republican, said during a recent virtual panel hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based Bipartisan Policy Center. Many voters wanted to make sure their ballots got to election officials, she said.
Partisanship will shape how states approach voting rules after the pandemic, said Stanford University law professor Nathaniel Persily, who studies election administration.
The politicization of mail voting will not end with this election, said Prof. Persily. It will now become part of the orthodoxy of the parties that the Democrats will be pushing for mail voting in future elections and Republicans will be opposing it.
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The deluge of mail ballots this election proved a particular challenge for some states whose rules dont allow election officials to begin opening and verifying the ballots before Election Day. Those restrictions slowed vote counting, election officials said, and prolonged uncertainty among the public.
That was evident in Pennsylvania, where negotiations before the November election collapsed between the parties. Republican state lawmakers proposed a bill that would have allowed earlier processing of mail ballots but included other provisions, such as a tighter deadline for receiving ballots in the mail, which Democrats opposed as making it harder to vote.
As a result, election officials in the state waited until 7 a.m. on Election Day before beginning to open and count more than 2.6 million mail ballots10 times the number of the 2016 election.
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On the fifth day of vote counting, the Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Mr. Biden, projecting he had captured the 270 electoral votes required to win the presidency.
For future elections, Seth Grove, a Republican state representative, said Pennsylvania needs upfront, internal controls in place to ensure that we can say without a doubt that our elections are safe. He pointed to the bill Republicans previously proposed, which Democrats rejected earlier this year.
The bills provisions included allowing three days to process mail ballots before Election Day, allowing poll watchers to be registered to vote anywhere in the state instead of only the county where they monitor voting, and specifying certain locations where voters could return mail ballots. Democrats said that would effectively ban drop boxes.
Kevin Boyle, a Democratic state representative, said Pennsylvanias election had relatively few mistakes, but stricter state oversight is needed to prevent some isolated problems from recurring. For example, a vendor initially sent the wrong ballot to as many as tens of thousands of voters in Allegheny County, Pa., Mr. Boyle said.
Mr. Boyle issued a warning about the future. Our democracy wont survive in the extended future if the loser seeks to delegitimize a free and fair election after every election, Mr. Boyle said. Commitment to constitutional American principles must include respecting the will of the people.
Write to Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com
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