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Commentary
Sarah Gonski is a Senior Policy Advisor of the Institute for Responsive Government ("IRG"), where she helps states and local jurisdictions design and implement policy solutions to make government more efficient, accessible, and responsive. Prior to joining IRG, Sarah spent seven years as a voting rights litigator in private practice. Sarah lives in Phoenix, Arizona, and is a graduate of the University of Maryland - College Park and Harvard Law School.
By Sarah Gonski
July 24, 2023, 10:30 AM
In recent years, much of the voting cultural wars have focused on one of the more controversial—and widely misunderstood—voting methods: no-excuse absentee voting. No-excuse absentee states allow any voter to vote by absentee ballot, regardless of their reason. Prominent Republicans, including former President Trump, have frequently miscast absentee voting as a partisan tool designed to perpetuate fraud and amplify Democratic turnout. The false rhetoric has filtered into the bloodstream of the GOP’s electorate, with Pew finding that Republican support for no-excuse absentee voting plummeted 19 percentage points between 2018 to 2021. Plainly, rhetoric matters.
Yet, facts do too. The history of absentee voting reflects a bipartisan—and often Republican-led—commitment to providing voters with cost-effective, efficient, and user-friendly government solutions. Recognizing the inherent value of voting mechanisms that are flexible, accessible, and secure, Republicans have been leaders in and proponents of implementing no-excuse absentee voting from the beginning. As we move forward, it is essential to acknowledge and build upon this historical context, repudiating false partisan narratives and rebuilding trust in electoral processes.
Absentee voting dates back to the American Civil War when both the Union and Confederate armies allowed soldiers to cast their votes from the front lines. As early as the 1920s, some states allowed voters to cast absentee ballots if they had specific pre-approved reasons for their absence, such as illness, travel, or military service.
In the 1990s, Republican-led states took significant strides toward broadening voting access by dropping the excuse requirement. With military, elderly, and disabled voters in mind, Republican states like Arizona, Montana, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, and others enacted no-excuse absentee voting. In the early 2000s, Florida, Georgia, and a slew of other states followed suit. This bipartisan (and usually uncontroversial) effort highlighted Republicans’ commitment to expanding voting access for all eligible voters.
These policies have proven popular and effective. No-excuse absentee voting was a good idea then, as it is now, because:
The recent shift in how Republican leaders have viewed the policy—despite its popularity and success—has been most on display in Arizona. Under solid Republican leadership, Arizona adopted no-excuse absentee voting in the early 1990s. There was little partisan rancor during policy debates, and the law had nearly unanimous support. Absentee voting quickly became popular among voters. By 2007, the state established a permanent early voter list, which automatically allowed voters to receive ballots in the mail for each election. Results were dramatic: for the 2016 presidential election, 70% of Arizonans voted absentee. In the COVID-afflicted 2020 election, that number rose to nearly 90%. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of the contentious 2020 election and amidst a cascade of misinformation aimed at absentee voting, the Arizona Republican Party has been hell-bent on repealing its own wildly popular policy.
Arizona has by no means been alone. During this past legislative cycle, Republicans have sponsored bills to dramatically curtail or eliminate no-excuse absentee voting in at least five other states.1 Idaho, Oklahoma, and Virginia even saw multiple standalone bills. The heartening news is that none of the bills got very far, at least partially because they lacked support from fellow Republicans.2
Hopefully, the tide is turning. Republicans have long championed no-excuse absentee voting for good reasons: it enhances the accessibility, efficiency, and security of our elections.
Recentering today’s hyper-partisan discourse in history is crucial to dispel the misconception that no-excuse absentee voting solely benefits one political party. It does not; if anything, studies suggest that no-excuse absentee voters are slightly more likely to vote Republican. As we navigate the present and future challenges, it is imperative to repudiate false narratives, acknowledge the historical context of these measures, and continue to foster a bipartisan commitment to a more user-friendly democracy.
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