Maine Public — A legislative committee has advanced a bill that would allow voters to automatically receive absentee ballots.

Beginning this year, Maine voters who are disabled or at least 65 years old can request that town clerks automatically mail absentee ballots to them for every statewide and municipal election. Some lawmakers now want to make that same option available to all voters.

The bill, LD 1690, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Mattie Daughtry of Brunswick, has the support of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who pointed out that five other states already allow “ongoing absentee balloting.”

KTTC — In a late night vote of 34-33 the Minnesota Senate voted in favor of SF3, more commonly referred to as the “Democracy for the People Act.” The bill overhauls several aspects of the voting process, and according to the DFL, makes it easier for every Minnesotan to cast a ballot.

The Democracy for the People Act allows pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds, criminalizes voter intimidation and interference, and creates automatic voter registration for all Minnesotans who interact with government agencies. Proponents of the bill say automatic registration will have a wide reaching effect.

The Center for American Progress — Voting by mail requires municipalities to distribute ballots to voters before election day. States give voters a window during which they are required to mail back their ballot to an election office, or drop it off at the office or a designated location, in a timely fashion in order to be counted in the election. Voting by mail eliminates the need for voters to visit in-person polling stations and permits them to vote from the safety of their homes. Despite being a convenient option for some voters, however, vote by mail is not a one-size-fits-all solution; in fact, it is inaccessible to many disabled voters who rely on in-person voting accessibility features to guarantee their right to a secure, private, and independent vote. Revising state plans to couple the expansion of vote by mail with in-person voting options is of the utmost importance and would ensure that disabled voters are able to access their right to vote in this historic election.

TIME – Republican state lawmakers are advancing a wave of new voting restrictions aimed at reversing the slew of pandemic-inspired election flexibilities, including expansions of mail voting, that most states adopted last year. But new evidence shows that those voting options likely led to significantly higher turnout among Americans with disabilities, a group that is equally as likely to vote Republican as Democrat.

Just 11% of voters with disabilities said they experienced difficulties in voting in 2020, down from 26% in 2012, according to a study on voting accessibility published Wednesday by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Among disabled voters who used mail ballots, just 5% reported experiencing difficulties, while 18% of disabled voters who opted for in-person voting encountered difficulties.

Those numbers mark a major change from previous election cycles, according to experts on political participation. “Anything that makes it easier, that provides more options to people with disabilities, is good for the turnout of people with disabilities,” says Douglas Kruse, a professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations who co-authored the EAC study.

Twitter – Utah Lieutenant Governor, Deidre Henderson and Oregon Secretary of State, Shemia Fagan delivered a bipartisan message to voters. Both states share decades of experience delivering safe and secure elections through vote-by-mail.

LA Times – For a brief time in 2020, it seemed as though the vote-by-mail movement was having a bipartisan moment.

Red and blue states that had offered the option only to a relatively small number of residents were suddenly scrambling to expand mail voting to as many people as possible to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at polling places. Voting rights advocates saw it as a chance to educate lawmakers and voters about the long-term benefits of moving away from casting ballots in person.

Two years later, access to mail voting looks radically different from state to state, mirroring a broad partisan divide in voting policies.

Washington Monthly – Emerson, Nebraska, is a farming town of 900 in the state’s sparse northeast expanse. Its Republican-leaning, nearly all-white population makes Emerson not unlike dozens of other rural communities in the state. It is unique, however, for being the only town in the state divided between three counties: Dixon County, which covers the western half of Emerson; and Dakota and Thurston Counties, which make up the northeastern and southeastern quadrants of the town, respectively.

AP – Michigan election officials would begin processing absentee ballots two days before the Nov. 8 election under legislation approved Wednesday in hopes of avoiding delays in counting, with absentee voting expected to remain a popular option.

NPR – During big U.S. elections, hundreds of thousands of mail ballots are typically thrown out and left uncounted. In 2020, for instance, more than 560,000 ballots were rejected (that’s nearly 1% of the total).

Experts say ballot rejections are largely the result of relatively minor voter errors, often associated with security measures that are designed to verify a voter’s identity.

That’s why about half of states have a process in place to help voters fix their mail ballots if they do make a mistake. It’s known as ballot curing.

Votebeat – A Votebeat analysis of data provided by multiple counties shows ballot drop boxes remain a popular voting option for all Arizonans, including in Republican-dominated areas. In several of the counties Votebeat analyzed, drop box use increased in this year’s primary compared with past primaries.