Title: Opinion: Here’s the truth about mail-in voting: fair, safe and honest - MarketWatch
Headings: Opinion:
Here’s the truth about mail-in voting: fair, safe and honest

Opinion: Here’s the truth about mail-in voting: fair, safe and honest
A women puts her ballot in a box while voting from her car Utah on June 30.
Voter fraud is rare overall, and rarer by mail
No partisan advantage
Milwaukee residents wait in long line to vote on April 7.
The public can learn to trust mail-in voting
Mail-in voting is safe, reliable and trustworthy

Content: A 2019 Gallup poll found that 59% of Americans lack confidence in the honesty of elections for a range of reasons, including concerns about interference from foreign powers or domestic political elites, security worries and general frustration. Advertisement
Americans’ confidence is lower than that reported in almost every other democratic country. With voting by mail, research has found people to be more concerned that their vote will not be counted correctly, as compared with voting in person. One 2008 study found that white absentee voters were less confident their ballots would be counted correctly than white in-person voters. A 2008 telephone survey found that about half of respondents were concerned that mail-in voting might lead to increased fraud, though the report on survey results didn’t describe specific types of fraud the respondents feared. Research from 2015 mostly confirmed those findings, revealing that people in states with more absentee voting tend to believe that various types of voter fraud are more common. That same study also found that absentee voters are less confident their vote will count than people who voted in person either before Election Day or on the day itself. Some concerns about mailed-in ballots not being counted may be legitimate: A 2018 study in Florida found that mailed-in ballots from younger voters and voters who needed assistance marking their ballots were rejected more often than others. That indicates standards for rejecting mailed-in ballots may not be uniform, or that some voters’ signatures change over time in ways election officials may not expect or accept.