In 2020, only about a third of Americans voted at a physical polling location on Election Day. The 2020 election represented the first time in American history that more than half of the electorate voted on a day that was not Election Day. The expansion of Election Day to “Election Month” brought out a number of lower-propensity, and arguably lower-information, voters who cast their ballots by the millions. Young people increased their voting share sharply in the last election.
In some states, the changes were even more dramatic. Between 2016 and 2020, New Jersey saw its share of mail ballots increase from just 7% to an astounding 86%. The partisan lean should be no more surprising. Among voters in Pennsylvania who voted by mail, 76% went for Joe Biden. In Maryland, it was 81%. In the crucial state of Georgia, Trump received just 34% of the mail-in ballots.
The 2020 trampling of precedent under the guise of an “emergency” was especially pronounced in critical states such as Pennsylvania, where officials were ordered to count mail-in ballots that arrived within three days after the election toward the final result — even those that did not have a postmark. The move undoubtedly had a massive impact on the swing state’s outcome. ...
By codifying mail-in balloting, it is likely that Republicans will be at a constant disadvantage in voter turnout. GOP voters tend to show up at the polls on Election Day. Democrats effectively harvested millions of votes in 2020 for their candidates.
