voteathomedev, Author at National Vote at Home Institute

It’s time for Pennsylvania to make voting easier

YORK DAILY RECORD — In the May 2025 primary election, voter turnout in many Pennsylvania communities was alarmingly low. In some municipalities, fewer than 1 in 10 registered voters cast a ballot. This isn’t voter apathy — it’s a policy failure. With our general municipal and judicial elections rapidly approaching, low voter turnout should concern all of us, especially in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American democracy.

It was in Philadelphia that the Framers declared independence, debated the Constitution, and lit the torch of representative government. Nearly 250 years later, that torch is dimming — not because people don’t care, but because our voting systems create unnecessary barriers to participation.

Too many elections in Pennsylvania still rely on outdated, inconvenient models: weekday-only voting, limited polling places, and inconsistent or confusing rules about mail-in voting and ballot curing. We are asking too much of voters to perform a basic civic duty.

National Vote at Home Institute Files Amicus Brief Urging Court to Block Ballot Receipt Deadline in Executive Order, Calls Out Federal Overreach

The National Vote at Home Institute (NVAHI), a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to expanding secure Vote at Home systems, filed an amicus brief in support of the Washington/Oregon suit challenging Section 7(a) of Executive Order No. 14248, which would require mailed-out ballots to be received, rather than postmarked, by Election Day in federal elections.

NVAHI argues that this provision of the executive order is unconstitutional and would disenfranchise tens of thousands of lawful voters, particularly those in rural areas or with limited access to ballot drop boxes.

“The U.S. constitution is clear on this issue. Every state determines how its elections will be run. This executive order is not just about ballot deadlines, it’s about a power grab of unprecedented federal overreach into state elections,” said Barbara Smith Warner, NVAHI executive director.

Over the last 20 years, more than one billion ballots have been delivered safely to voters across the United States. All 50 states and Washington, D.C., now allow Vote at Home in some form, and 18 states accept ballots postmarked by Election Day, a standard that is both secure and essential for protecting voting rights.

Our amicus brief includes findings that show:

Vote at Home systems increase voter turnout by an average of 3-4 percentage points
Fraud is exceedingly rare, with fewer than 0.00006% of roughly 250 million mailed-out ballots over 20 years showing any credible evidence of fraud.
States that expanded Vote at Home access saw increased participation among voters with disabilities and young voters, particularly voters of color.
Rural voters would be disproportionately harmed by an Election Day receipt deadline, due to slower mail delivery and fewer ballot drop boxes.

The brief cites recent warnings from the National Association of State Election Directors and the U.S. Postal Service acknowledging growing delays in ballot delivery, especially in rural communities.

“This Executive Order is a direct threat to voters. Thousands of Americans who follow the rules and mail their ballots on time could be silenced because of mail delays beyond their control. That’s not democracy, it’s disenfranchisement,” said Smith Warner.

About National Vote At Home Institute

The National Vote at Home Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to increase voters’ access to, use of and confidence in mailed-out ballots. Since 2018, NVAHI has helped policymakers and election administrators facilitate innovation of Vote at Home systems by providing resources and best practices on research, policy and communications. Our long-range vision is a nationwide Universal Vote at Home election system in which all active registered voters are automatically delivered their mailed-out ballot, to be returned by postage-free mail or in person to a wide range of secure locations, can track them online in real-time, and easily and promptly correct any administrative errors.

Voters favored casting early and mail ballots in last year’s presidential election, report shows

AP NEWS — Casting mailed ballots remained popular among voters in last year’s presidential election. A report released Monday by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission also found a surge in early in-person voting and robust use of ballot drop boxes, which have been a target of conspiracy theorists since the 2020 election.

The findings, based on data collected at the local level and submitted by states, illustrate the sustained popularity of alternate voting methods even as they have come under attack in recent years.

High Turnout, Wide Margins with Barbara Smith Warner

HIGH TURNOUT, WIDE MARGINS — In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Barbara Smith Warner, the current executive director of the National Vote at Home Institute, a national organization working to “increase voters’ access to, use of and confidence in voting at home.”

They spoke about how local election administrators can best work to inform state legislators about election administration, as well as about the resources the National Vote at Home Institute has for election administrators across the country – both those in universal vote from home states and those in states with more limits on ballot access.

Census Bureau Voting Data Highlights Turnout-Boosting Power of Vote at Home Systems

Every two years, the U.S. Census Bureau releases a comprehensive report on voting turnout patterns among states and key demographic groups for the most recent general election. The latest report on the November 2024 election showed once again the turnout-boosting power of Vote at Home election systems: when more voters have their ballots delivered to them, more of them vote.

A unique element of the Census data is information on non-voters and what kept them from casting a ballot. Many of those reasons are eliminated by automatically mailing a ballot to every voter: “out of town,” “transportation problems” “bad weather” or “inconvenient polling place” are irrelevant when your ballot is automatically delivered to you, and you can mail it or return it in person at your convenience.

According to the 2024 Census report, 44% of non-voters in non-Western states cited such logistical barriers. These regions had low use of mail ballots: 21% in the Northeast, 18% in the Midwest, and 11% in the South (Table 14).

But in the 13 Western states, where 74% of those voting said they voted with mail ballots, just 34% of non-voters cited the same reasons (Table 10).

Overall, about 50 million registered voters did not vote in 2024, according to official state voter registration records. Having 10% fewer voters thwarted by logistical hurdles could have resulted in 5 million additional ballots cast nationwide.

“There’s no simpler or more powerful approach to both protect voting rights and dramatically boost voter participation than adopting the ‘Vote at Home’ election system approach now used in eight states and the District of Columbia,” said NVAHI Executive Director Barbara Smith Warner.

Oregon, which pioneered Universal Vote at Home elections in 2000, continues to lead the nation in turnout despite not being a battleground state or having a US Senate or gubernatorial race on the ballot in 2024.

“Voting is a fundamental American right, and it’s our duty to make sure every citizen can exercise that right. Voting from home is the safe, secure, and efficient way for Americans to hold their politicians accountable, and the numbers here in Oregon prove it,” said Oregon Secretary of State, Tobias Read. “I’m proud that our state is leading the way, and everyone who agrees that elections must reflect the will of the people should follow our lead.”

Other highlights from Oregon’s turnout include:

75.27% turnout among eligible citizens — second only to Minnesota and 10 points above the national average (Table 4b).
Among Hispanic voters, Oregon’s turnout ranked 6th nationally at 62%, 12 points above the national average.
Among voters aged 18–44, Oregon ranked 5th; among those 65 and older, it ranked 2nd; both 10 points above national rates.
Oregon outperformed all seven 2024 presidential battleground states, despite their record-breaking campaign spending and voter outreach (Table 4c).
Notably, Black voter turnout in Oregon — a state with a relatively small Black population — ranked #1 in the nation at nearly 80% (Table 4b).

About National Vote At Home Institute

The National Vote at Home Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works to increase voters’ access to, use of and confidence in mailed-out ballots. Since 2018, NVAHI has helped policymakers and election administrators facilitate innovation of Vote at Home systems by providing resources and best practices on research, policy and communications. Our long-range vision is a nationwide Universal Vote at Home election system in which all active registered voters are automatically delivered their mailed-out ballot, to be returned by postage-free mail or in person to a wide range of secure locations, can track them online in real-time, and easily and promptly correct any administrative errors.

Celebrating 25 Years of Vote at Home

This week we celebrated 25 years since Oregon took the leap to automatically deliver ballots to all registered voters for every election.

Huge thanks to Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Former Oregon Secretary of State, Phil Keisling for sharing their insights on how Vote at Home has improved voter turnout across the country.

Adrian Fontes, Arizona SoS

“Once folks start voting at home, they love it. Particularly for voters in Greater Arizona, it does increase access and turnout.”

Phil Keisling, Fmr Oregon SoS

“Oregon’s experience shows the real turnout power of how sending ballots can boost engagement.”

Barbara Smith Warner, Exec. Director, NVAHI

“You can only be successful in this work if you’re engaged with the local democracy folks on the ground.”

Highlights:

We meet states where they are and help move them toward more access to Vote at Home, whether that’s Maine or Massachusetts, Alaska or Texas.
Defense is sometimes the best offense, and we have fought off attacks from Idaho and Wyoming to Utah and Oklahoma, delaying rollbacks and protecting voter access.
Launching a statewide effort in Pennsylvania, supported by the William Penn Foundation, to work in coalition to create statewide ballot curing standards.

We also covered:

Nebraska’s small counties that send every voter a ballot seeing turnout double or triple the turnout of the rest of the state.
Michigan’s use of Single Sign Up as a step toward universal Vote at Home.
More people using Vote at Home in 2020 than any other voting method, and maintaining strong usage despite misinformation campaigns.

If you have questions, feel free to connect with us.

Wyden Reintroduces Bill to Allow All Americans to Vote at Home

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today announced that he has reintroduced his bill to ensure Americans can more conveniently and securely vote at home. The Vote at Home Act would allow all eligible voters to vote by mail, provide pre-paid envelopes to return ballots, and automatically register citizens to vote at DMVs.

The bill follows Republican efforts to dismantle voting rights for millions of Americans. Most recently, House Republicans passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would restrict voting rights for 69 million married women who have changed their last name and 140 million Americans who do not have a passport. In-person voter ID laws particularly hurt seniors, minorities, people with disabilities, and low-income people.

New Target in GOP War on Voting: Mail Ballot Grace Periods

DEMOCRACY DOCKET — President Donald Trump and the GOP have launched a new offensive in their long-running war on voting. Their latest target? Ballots that arrive after Election Day.

It’s a multi-pronged assault. The U.S. Supreme Court could soon take up a Republican lawsuit aimed at barring states from accepting mail votes that come in after Election Day. An executive order signed by Trump in March aims to crack down on the practice. GOP-controlled states are passing new laws to ban these ballots. Congress has held hearings on the issue. And even the chair of a federal voting agency has signaled he’s on board with the effort.

In sixteen states and Washington D.C., a grace period of varying lengths — Washington state’s is the longest at 21 days — allows mail ballots that arrive after Election Day to be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day, in part to ensure that voters aren’t disenfranchised by mail delays beyond their control. Several states created or lengthened their grace periods in response to the dramatic surge in mail voting spurred by the Covid crisis of 2020.

A Deep Dive into Absentee Ballot Rejection in the 2020 General Election

The November 2020 general election saw a surge of mail-in/absentee voting, mainly in response to safety concerns surrounding voting in-person during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the overall total of mail ballots cast went from 28.8 million in 2016 to 66.4 million in 2020, a whopping 131 percent increase. With it likely that mail-in voting will continue to be prevalent, it is important to examine the nuances of the data more deeply, in order to improve the process for voters and election administrators alike. Today, we hone in on one particular facet of mail voting during the 2020 general election, absentee ballot rejection.

In this exploration, we see that absentee/mail-ballot rejection rates dropped significantly in 2020 compared to 2016, dropping the most in states that had previously erected high barriers to the use of mail ballots. Pre-processing laws and deadlines for the receipt of mail ballots didn’t seem to have much effect on rejection rates. Policy choices that did seem to matter were requiring multiple forms of identification with a returned ballot, which significantly increased rejection rates, and allowing ballots with administrative deficiencies to be “cured,” which significantly decreased rejection rates.

Trump’s Executive Order Could Jeopardize ‘Hundreds of Thousands’ of Future Mail Ballots

NPR — The state of Washington has been allowing election officials to count mail ballots that don’t make it to their office until after Election Day for more than a hundred years now. It’s a practice that could be prohibited in upcoming elections, thanks to a sweeping executive order signed by President Trump last month.

Whether the order stands, though, is an open question. So far, there’s been a slew of lawsuits filed against the current administration in response to this election order — including one recently filed by 19 states.

Ultimately, Barbara Smith Warner said she thinks Trump will not be allowed to tell states they can’t count mail ballots after Election Day.