Data Dive: The Growth of Early In-Person and Mail Voting

Research by Jordan Phan & Kira Flemke

Jordan Phan is a Research Intern with The Center for Election Innovation and Research.

Early in-person voting and mail voting have been very popular in recent years. In 2016, 40% of votes were cast before election day. In 2020, 69% were cast before election day. In the 2024 general election, 97% of voting-age citizens will live in states with at least one option to vote before election day.

CEIR recently published research on “The Growing Use of Voting Before Election Day” and “The Expansion of Voting Before Election Day, 2000-2024.” This data dive adds to these briefs, highlighting the use of early in-person voting and the use of mail voting across states in 2016 and 2020.

Between 2016 and 2020, the number of states offering at least one option to vote before election day increased. The proportion of voters using early in-person and mail voting within states also increased. This growing use of early in-person and mail voting reflects the long-term popularity of voting before election day. The COVID-19 pandemic increased use in 2020, but interest in voting before election day was not new.

Defining Terms.

This focus brief uses the phrase “early in-person voting” to refer to voting that is available to all voters and conducted in person before the day of the election. This includes policies referred to by states as early voting, in-person no-excuse absentee voting, and advanced voting. Similarly, “mail voting” refers to voting where all voters are eligible to receive their ballot via mail, including policies referred to by states as all-mail voting and no-excuse absentee by mail.

CEIR’s analysis of voting before election day in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., required extensive effort to create a complete dataset. The few states that did not report data by voting method were excluded from this analysis of early in-person and mail voting.

Use of Early In-Person Voting

The proportion of votes cast early in-person increased by over four percentage points between 2016 and 2020, from 27% to 31%. In 2016, 27% of votes nationally were cast early in-person across 32 states that reported turnout by method of voting before election day. In 2020, 31% of votes nationally were cast early in person across 41 reporting states. Tennessee saw the greatest proportion of ballots cast early in person in 2016, with nearly 64%. In 2020, Texas led with 77% of votes cast early in person.

In 2016, the share of votes cast early in person in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., ranged from less than 1% to 64%. The average proportion of votes cast early in person in states was 25%.[1] Six states saw over half their ballots cast early in person.

In 2020, the share of votes cast early in person ranged from nearly 0% to 77%. The state average was 27%, a slight increase in state average early in-person voting from 2016. Five states saw over half of their ballots cast early in person.

Use of Mail Voting

The overall growth in voting before election day from 2016 to 2020, as seen in CEIR’s focus brief on “The Growing Use of Voting Before Election Day,” was largely driven by the increased use of mail voting. The proportion of votes cast by mail nationally nearly doubled between the 2016 and 2020 general elections. Between 2016 and 2020, more states offered all voters the option to vote by mail without requiring them to cite an eligible reason. Within states, more voters opted to use a mail ballot in 2020, although some of this increase was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2016, 23% of votes were cast by mail across the 32 states that reported turnout for this method of voting before election day. In 2020, 42% of votes were cast by mail across 41 reporting states. In both 2016 and 2020, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado had the highest proportions of mail ballot use. In both elections, each of these all-mail states mailed ballots to all active registered voters.[2]

In 2016, the share of votes cast by mail ballot ranged from 1% to nearly 100% in some all-mail states, with a state average of 19%. Across states that allowed all eligible voters to vote by mail, 34% of votes were cast by mail. Across states that required an eligible reason, 8% of votes were cast by mail. Six states reported over half of ballots cast by mail.

In 2020, the share of votes cast by mail ballots increased. The share of mail ballots ranged from 7% to nearly 100% in some all-mail states, with a state average of 40%. Across states that allowed all eligible voters to vote by mail, 48% of votes were cast by mail. Across states that required an eligible reason, 10% of votes were cast by mail. Nine states reported more than half of their ballots cast by mail.

States Without Data for Method of Voting Before Election Day

Several states did not report data by vote method to the Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS) for the 2016 or 2020 general election. CEIR attempted to find an alternative data source, but data was not available for a few states. These states are not included in this data dive.

States that did not report data by voting method still showed overall growth in total voting before election day, as discussed in CEIR’s focus brief on “The Growing Use of Voting Before Election Day.”

Click here to download the full data used in this data dive and “The Growing Use of Voting Before Election Day.”

This data dive is part of CEIR’s ongoing research into voting before election day. To learn more, visit:

The Expansion of Voting Before Election Day, 2000-2024

CEIR Focus Brief: The Growing Use of Voting Before Election Day

CEIR Focus Brief: Dates for 2024 Early In-Person and Mail Voting

Data Dive: 2024 Weekend Availability of Early In-Person Voting

Additional Notes

[1] This figure represents the average of rates of early in-person voting across the 50 states and Washington, D.C., while the national proportion of votes cast early in person differs.

[2] In all-mail states, each active registered voter is automatically sent a mail ballot prior to an election, which can then be returned in-person or by mail. In 2016, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington conducted all-mail elections. In 2020, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C., conducted all-mail elections.