• Record numbers of American voters are expected to cast ballots by mail in the 2020 election.
  • In addition to the seven states and the District of Columbia that are sending all or most registered voters a ballot, voters can already request their November ballots in 45 states.
  • The process of requesting and returning a ballot can be unfamiliar and confusing to many voters, especially those in states with historically low levels of mail voting.
  • The US Postal Service is urging voters to request their ballots at least two weeks in advance but ideally as soon as possible, and mail it back at least a week before the election.
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Several states have made it easier to vote by mail in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a recent Washington Post analysis finding that over 89 million voters will have ballots or mail ballot applications automatically sent to them in the mail and 91 million more voters will be able to vote by mail without an excuse.

But the process of requesting and returning a ballot can be unfamiliar and confusing to many voters, especially those in states with historically low levels of mail voting.

Less than half of US states allow US voters to request ballots through an online portal or by emailing in a scanned copy of their ballot to their local election office, meaning many mail voters will be sending in their request forms through the postal service.

This fall, eight states and the District of Columbia are sending all or most registered voters a ballot while Montana is authorizing individual counties to send out ballots, which each county did for the state’s June primary. Eight additional states are sending all voters mail ballot applications and in Mexico’s case, allowing counties to do so. In all remaining US states, voters can already request their November ballots everywhere except for Mississippi.

Here are the first days to apply for your ballot by mail and the deadlines to return them in every state:

It's important to note that even though 24 states allow voters to request ballots within a week of the election, both election officials and the United States Postal Service are encouraging voters to request their ballots as soon as possible, and ideally several weeks in advance, to ensure they receive their ballots on time.

In primaries so far this year, many election offices that saw exponential increases in voters requesting mail ballots at the last minute struggled to get ballots out to all voters in time in parts of Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, Georgia, and New York.

This year, Americans became familiar with the idea of flattening the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic by keeping cases at or below what the capacity of the US healthcare system can handle.

Now, election officials and experts are applying the same analogy to mail ballot requests, encouraging voters to begin requesting their November ballots now, in the summer, to make sure they will receive and send back their ballots in time.

Both CBS News and Fox News have reported that the USPS, which delivers millions of mail ballots every year, has told election officials that it cannot guarantee that voters' ballots will arrive by a certain date, advising voters to plan for their ballot to take at least a 14-day round-trip.

A recent NPR analysis found that at least 65,000 ballots have been rejected for arriving past the state's arrival deadline this year alone, often by factors out of their control, making it even more essential for voters to not leave their vote up to chance and mail their ballots back at least seven days in advance, even if the arrival deadline is on or after election day.