Most Americans Favor Voting by Mail as Option in November

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While most Americans (64%) favor their state allowing all voters to vote by mail or absentee ballot, differences arise among key demographic subgroups. Eighty-three percent of Democrats say they favor such a measure, but fewer than half as many Republicans, 40%, express the same sentiment. Sixty-eight percent of independents support state measures that would allow mail or absentee ballots, similar to the level among all Americans.

	Favor	Oppose
	%	%
All Americans	64	34
Political affiliation
Republican	40	59
Independent	68	29
Democrat	83	15
Age
18-29	73	26
30-49	65	31
50-64	62	38
65+	55	43
Gallup, April 14-28

Generationally, younger respondents are the most likely to favor enabling all voters to vote via mail. Yet across all age groups, a majority of Americans back the idea. While most registered voters (62%) favor such measures, unregistered voters are even more likely (75%) to do so.

Of the one-third of respondents who say they have ever voted by absentee ballot or mail in an election, 71% favor their state allowing all voters to cast ballots this way in November. This drops to 60% among those who have not voted absentee or by mail.

Fraud and the 2020 Vote

Gallup also asked respondents whether they were concerned about fraud in the electoral process as an outcome of voting by mail. Overall, nearly half of Americans say there would be more fraud if ballots were cast by mail, 29% say there would be the same amount, and 20% think there would be less fraud.

	More fraud	Same amount	Less fraud	No opinion
	%	%	%	%
All Americans	49	29	20	2
Political affiliation
Republicans	76	16	6	1
Independents	48	32	18	2
Democrats	27	39	33	2
Gallup, April 14-28

As with overall support for voting by mail, there is a substantial partisan divide when it comes to concerns over voter fraud. Roughly three in four Republicans (76%) say that more fraud is likely if all voters cast their ballots by mail. Democrats, on the other hand, are not concerned: 27% say there would be more fraud while 39% say voting by mail would witness the same amount of fraud and 33% say there would be less.

How Much Fraud?

When asked how much fraud there would be if all voters were allowed to vote by mail this year, 31% of national adults think there would be a great deal, 30% a fair amount, 28% only a little and 10% none. Again, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they would expect a great deal of fraud, 50% vs. 16%.

	A great deal	A fair amount	Only a little	None	No opinion
	%	%	%	%	%
All Americans	31	30	28	10	1
Political affiliaiton
Republicans	50	31	16	2	-
Independents	29	33	28	9	1
Democrats	16	24	41	18	-
Gallup, April 14-28

Bottom Line

While most Americans support states allowing voters to cast ballots through the mail this November, nearly half say there would be more voter fraud under those circumstances. Attitudes around both voting by mail in general and concern about it causing more voter fraud are politically polarized. Non-registered adults are more likely to favor voting by mail than respondents who identify as registered voters, which could be an indication that non-registered adults may indeed vote if given the mail option.

View complete question responses and trends (PDF download).

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