Early approaches to voting methods in the United States that used the mail enabled military service members to participate in elections when wartime deployments took them away from their polling precincts. The Civil War led many states to provide military personnel with ways to vote when away from home. Allowances for civilians voting absentee grew in the early 20th century through Progressive-era policies to create voting options for mobile populations such as traveling salespeople. A Vermont law in 1896 allowed civilians to vote absentee at polling places outside their home precinct (this did not include the use of mail). In 1901, Kansas became the first state to permit voting by mail but limited this to railroad employees. Virginia passed legislation in 1916 providing voters absent from their home precinct due to business obligations the ability to request, receive, and cast ballots through the mail. By 1917 Indiana and Wisconsin enacted absentee voting for people with illnesses or physical disabilities. During World War II, federal and state laws supported absentee voting for the armed forces, but these provisions varied greatly, and some were only temporary.
Legislators in the decades following the war established further measures for absentee voting to enfranchise military service members away from their home precincts during elections and American civilians living overseas. Since the 1980s, some jurisdictions have instituted all-mail voting with the automatic distribution of ballots to registered voters. This method has been applied to local, state, and federal elections and by 2000, Oregon became the first state to use all-mail voting for a presidential general election. The public health emergency of the Covid-19 pandemic brought about temporary procedures, new laws, and debates over using the mail for voting. It also brought attention to concerns over election integrity that have existed since the beginning of voting at polling places and by mail. The changing logistical and political reasons for the various ways mail has—and has not—been part of the election process continue to define where, when, and how Americans vote in elections.
The exhibited items reflect the museum’s collecting priorities and image research that have focused on watershed moments including the Civil War, World War II, and the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw increases in the amount of election mail.
Mailing a Tally Sheet for a State Election
Ohio voters, 1864
Election officials in the state of Ohio created envelopes to enable deployed military service members to participate in the state and presidential elections of 1864. The envelopes were not for individually submitted ballots, rather, they held the results for the polling locations; voting took place at temporary polls for the soldiers in the field, in encampments, and in other places outside their home voting precincts. An appointed clerk recorded and mailed the final vote count. This envelope contained the state election tally sheet of the Highland County, Ohio, soldiers at a Union army field hospital located in Georgia.
Learn more about this cover and Civil War elections
Gift of Tadas Osmolskis, 2011.2061.1
Soldier Commenting on the Presidential Election
Indiana voters, 1864
On November 24, 1864, Private Isaac Walters sent this letter to his sister-in-law Rachel and described how fellow soldiers had returned to Indiana to vote. The politically divided state government debated, but did not enact, absentee voting for deployed soldiers. In response, Indiana’s Republican Governor Oliver Morton asked President Abraham Lincoln to request that military leaders allow troops to travel home for the election. Isaac Walters witnessed sick and injured soldiers being sent from Virginia to Indiana four days before the election and commented that they “were furloughed to give old Abe a hoist but didn't get there in time but [Lincoln] got through Safe anyhow."
Learn more about the Walters family
Gift of June Walters Leonard, 1991.0291.94
Courtesy Dickinson College
President and First Lady Coolidge Vote by Mail
Massachusetts voters, 1924
This series of photos show President Calvin Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge voting absentee while at the White House, Washington, DC. They individually completed their ballots for mailing to their home precinct in Massachusetts. A notary witnessed the Coolidges take the oath required by the state and attest that they met the state’s criteria for absentee voters. This was the second presidential election in which Grace Coolidge could vote since the ratification of the 19th amendment to the US Constitution extended suffrage to women in 1920. Calvin Coolidge won the 1924 election for his first full term after he had assumed the presidency following the death of Warren Harding in August 1923.
Courtesy Library of Congress
Courtesy Library of Congress
Courtesy Library of Congress
Courtesy Library of Congress
Incarcerated Japanese American Citizens Vote Absentee
US voters, 1942
Alice Fujinaga was one of many incarcerated Japanese Americans who, having been forcibly removed from their homes during World War II, exercised their right as US citizens and registered voters to cast their ballots. Fujinaga was photographed in 1942 by War Relocation Authority photographer Francis Stewart as she waited for her absentee ballot to be notarized at Tule Lake incarceration site in California. Incarcerated Japanese Americans voted absentee in 1942 and 1944 according to their home states’ election procedures, which some states revised because of the extraordinary circumstances of voters’ changed residency status due to expulsion and incarceration.
Courtesy National Archives
Requesting Ballots During World War II
US voters, 1944
In advance of the 1944 presidential election, the War Ballot Commission oversaw production at the Government Printing Office of these ballot request postcards. Officials distributed millions of the cards to personnel of the US Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard deployed around the world. All forty-eight states allowed military personnel to vote absentee, but only some granted eligibility to merchant marines and members of military support organizations.
Voters filled out the form with their deployment address. The prepaid airmail postage saved the sender time and money when mailing the cards to their home precincts. Upon the cards’ receipt, local election administrators verified the voters’ registration status and dispatched ballot packets.
Learn more about another of these postcards from an Alabama voter
Bequest of Harriett M. Leach, 0.260305.48.56.1
Bequest of Harriett M. Leach, 0.260305.48.59.1
Courtesy National Archives
Federal Absentee Voting Materials for Armed Forces
US voters, 1944
William Callahan kept this unused ballot following his World War II service. A postal employee in peacetime, Callahan drew upon his experience to fulfill his military assignment coordinating voting for the US Navy. The task of dispatching voting materials around the globe involved complex logistics. Weeks-long mailing times for US forces overseas had to be accommodated. Thus, the design of this special ballot enabled the government to distribute it before candidate names became available. Voters had to write in the candidates’ names. More than 100,000 did so. Yet, that was only a small portion of the 25 percent of American service members who cast absentee ballots in 1944.
Gift of the Estate of Jean Frances Callahan, 2024.2001.4
Submitting a Ballot During World War II
Washington voter, 1944
Captain Teckla H. Jacobson of the US Army Nurse Corps mailed this envelope addressed to an election administration office in the state of Washington. Because of the absentee voting provisions for the military, she could vote in the separately administered state and presidential elections. She enclosed her completed ballot for the 1944 state election in this envelope, signed the affidavit that she met the multiple requirements for a registered voter, and mailed it from her Army Post Office (APO) in France. Officials issued the envelope printed with prepaid airmail postage to speed this mail to its destination and with red markings to help postal workers and election officials quickly identify and prioritize this mail.
Bequest of Harriett M. Leach, 0.260305.48.60.1
Courtesy National Archives
Register and Vote Messaging
United States, 1964
This Post Office Department poster for the August 1964 stamp issue carries a slogan for registering and voting. According to a Washington Post article, Postmaster General John A. Gronouski, Jr. “praised” this stamp at a philatelic exhibition and commented on the use of stamps for promoting causes. Gronouski also cited “heavy demand from the public” as the reason for increasing the print run from 120 million to 213 million. Under the subsequent Postmaster General, W. Marvin Watson, the Department ordered another print run for the 1966 mid-term election.
Courtesy Smithsonian Libraries and Archives
No Mail for Voters in Space
US voters since 1997
Photo by Ronald Bailey. U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
A resident of Texas who is eligible to vote but who "will be on a space flight" during election time can vote absentee under 1997 state legislation. Many US astronauts are residents of Texas while they work at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, hence the state law. They complete and mail, email, or fax a form to register and request a ballot following the requirements set by the state of Texas and the Federal guidelines for the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) that the Federal Voters Assistance Program (FVAP) provides for voters in the US military or overseas to vote absentee. While they can mail, email, or fax the FPCA on Earth, there is no postal service in outer space, thus, astronauts do not vote by mail. They submit their vote by secure electronic transmission and an election official processes the absentee ballot. Their voting is done without stepping foot in an earthbound polling place or without the use of a mailbox on the Earth. Read more about it in a NASA blog post published in 2020 and by the National Air and Space Museum.
Election Information from USPS
United States, 2020
In 2020, legislatures across the US developed new voting laws and temporary measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. These changes enabled many American voters to receive voting materials by mail and cast ballots while sheltered at home during the public health crisis. To prepare voters, the US Postal Service distributed this informational card to mailboxes nationwide. However, creating standard messaging for a system with over 10,000 election jurisdictions posed its own challenges. This postcard-sized “checklist to prepare” for voting by mail did not cover guidelines for every jurisdiction, prompting some election officials and the USPS to take action to correct the information.
See references for further reading
Gift of Dr. Allison Marsh, 2023.2017.1
Gift of Dr. Allison Marsh, 2023.2017.1
Incorrect Ballots Mailed to Voters
Ohio voter, 2020
A registered voter from Franklin County, Ohio, received this absentee ballot sheet for the 2020 general election. Some recipients, however, noticed their ballots had the wrong precinct or incorrect candidate information. Election officials investigated and found that the automated scanner checking the ballot production did not catch these errors. Nearly 50,000 of the over 237,000 mailed ballots had been printed with mistakes. The officials enabled voters to check the validity of their ballots on the county’s election website. They also notified the affected voters by mail, sent corrected replacement ballots in the mail, and allowed voters the choice to cast ballots at a polling center instead.
See references for further reading
Gift of Melanie Mackenzie, 2021.2003.1.2
New Jersey National Guard photo by Mark C. Olsen
Options for Casting Ballots
Washington, DC voter, 2020
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, District of Columbia officials changed voting procedures to automatically send ballots to all registered voters for the 2020 general election. This step towards all-mail voting was not without significant challenges. A 2021 report from the district’s auditor found that 11 percent of the mailed ballots were returned as undeliverable. This indicated issues with maintenance of voter registration rolls that could create questions about election integrity and affect voter participation. DC voters, however, had multiple options for obtaining and casting ballots in this election. For example, the donor of this ballot envelope received it in his mailbox, but, instead of voting by mail, he chose to vote in-person at the Nationals Park polling station.
See references for further reading
Gift of Dustin Renwick, 2022.2019.1.5
Informing Voters of Special Elections
US voters, 2021
Election administrators plan the messaging and budget for postage, design, printing, and processing of all official election mail in their jurisdiction. They do this for the familiar cycle of primary, general, and special elections. For example, officials in Fulton County, Georgia, mailed the tri-fold notice (pictured below) for the 2021 runoff election and officials in California’s Orange County prepared the card (pictured below) regarding a 2021 vote on whether to recall the governor. Both items provided information about dates for voting and specific options for casting ballots.
Gift of Alexandra Velazquez, 2022.2014.1
Gift of Anonymous, 2024.2002.10
All-Mail Voting Becomes California State Law
California voter, 2022
A California voter received this guide to the June 2022 primary ahead of the ballot that would soon arrive in the mailbox. In September 2021, California had become the eighth state in the US to institute all-mail voting for all elections. This followed a trend for expanding all-mail voting that began with Oregon’s 1981 provision for local elections. Today, multiple states allow all-mail voting at various election levels. Officials in jurisdictions with all-mail voting automatically send ballots to registered voters and allow voters to cast their ballots in-person, deposit them in officially-designated election drop boxes, or send them by mail, for which California law mandates pre-paid postage for ballot return envelopes.
See references for further reading
Gift of Anonymous, 2024.2002.14
