Most of the country can now vote by mail, though the rapid expansion of mail-in voting has triggered a backlash on the right.
By the numbers: Eight states and Washington, D.C., automatically mail ballots to all registered voters. Twenty-eight more states allow voters to request a mail-in ballot without needing to give a reason why they need or want one.
A handful of states allow mail-in voting, but only with an excuse — typically age, illness, being a caretaker or being out of town on Election Day.
The big picture: There’s been a consistent backlash against mail-in voting, as opponents incorrectly argue that the large number of people who voted that way during the pandemic was evidence of voter fraud. There’s been no evidence of a correlation between votes cast by mail and fraud.
Those conspiracy theories mirror the trends in restrictive voting legislation we’ve seen popping up around the country, per Brennan Center research.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to note that eight states automatically mail ballots to all registered voters, not seven.