Voters favored casting early and mail ballots in last year’s presidential election, report shows

ATLANTA (AP) — Casting mailed ballots remained popular among voters in last year’s presidential election, even as President Donald Trump has tried to undercut the process through a wide-ranging executive order.

A a target of conspiracy theorists since the 2020 election.

The findings, based on data collected at the local level and submitted by states, illustrate the sustained popularity of alternate voting methods even as they have come under attack in recent years from Republicans.

“Notwithstanding the rhetoric from some, our election process continues to reflect the expectations voters have about where, when and how to vote,” said David Levine, a former county election official in Idaho who is now a senior fellow at the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. “Once voters try voting before Election Day, they often continue to do so for future elections.”

Overall, more than 158 million ballots were counted for the November 2024 presidential election, according to the report. Turnout was 3 percentage points lower than in 2020 but nearly 4 percentage points higher than during the 2016 presidential election.

Mail voting is popular despite rhetoric

Roughly 30% of voters last fall used a mail ballot, a decline from the 43% who did so during the pandemic election in 2020 but higher than pre-pandemic elections, when mail ballots typically accounted for about 25% of votes cast.

The report noted that four states – Democratic-leaning Washington and Republican-leaning Indiana, South Dakota and Utah — saw higher percentages of mail voting in 2024 than four years earlier.

Trump has long complained, without providing evidence, that mail voting opens a pathway to fraud. The election executive order he signed in March, which is facing several lawsuits, targets mail voting by saying all ballots must be received by Election Day. Currently, 18 states and Puerto Rico accept mailed ballots received after Election Day as long they are postmarked on or before that date.

Oregon and Washington, where elections are conducted almost entirely by mail, filed their own lawsuit against the order fearing that tens of thousands of their voters could be disenfranchised if it is allowed to stand. During a news conference announcing the lawsuit, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said more than 300,000 ballots in his state arrived after Election Day in 2024.

Popularity of early in-person voting surges

The report found the 2024 presidential election saw a drop in Election Day voting and a corresponding increase in early, in-person voting. Election Day voting declined from 49% in 2022 to roughly 37% in 2024, when 35% took advantage of voting early.

Republican-dominated South Carolina and Democratic-leaning Delaware had the largest increases in early, in-person voting compared to four years ago.

Republicans last year mounted a campaign to reverse years of conservative criticism of early voting methods and persuade their voters to cast ballots before Election Day, a strategy that helped Trump win a second term.

Ballot drop boxes used heavily where they are allowed

Since Trump’s loss in 2020, conservative activists and conspiracy theorists have zeroed in on ballot drop boxes as a potential source of fraud despite no evidence of that occurring in that year’s elections. Some Republican-led states have since blocked their use or reduced their availability.

But they remain popular in other parts of the country. The report found drop boxes were in use in 35 states plus the District of Columbia in 2024. Of those, 21 states reported a total of nearly 15 million mail ballots returned with the use of a drop box, accounting for about 45% of all mail ballots returned by voters.

Of the states that reported data on ballot drop boxes for 2022 and 2024, four states reported double-digit increases in the percentage of mail ballots returned at drop boxes: the Democratic stronghold of California, Republican-leaning Kansas and Utah, and swing state Nevada.