Postal voting
In an election, postal votes may be available on demand or limited to individuals meeting certain criteria, such as a proven inability to travel to a designated polling place.
The history of postal voting dates back to the 19th century, and modern-day procedures and availability vary by jurisdiction.
[1][2][3] Electoral laws typically stipulate a series of checks to protect against voter fraud and allow for the integrity and secrecy of the submitted ballot to be maintained.
[4] Coordinated, large-scale fraud by postal voting is likely hard to pull off undetected because the large number of interested parties (such as officials, political operators, and journalists) as well as a large number of scholars and analysts who are capable of detecting statistical outliers in vote totals signifying large-scale fraud.
[2] Officials can confirm instances of fraud by checking signatures and conducting basic detective work.
Depending on the country, electors may have to return their ballot papers by post or they may be allowed to deliver them by hand to specified drop-off locations.
The Cook government's bill to restore postal voting was one of the "triggers" for the double dissolution prior to the 1914 election.
Postal voting was eventually restored by the Hughes government in 1918 and has not been challenged since, although the provisions and requirements have been amended on a number of occasions.
[7] Prior to Federation in 1901, Western Australia introduced a form of postal voting in 1877 with strict eligibility criteria.
Victoria passed a similar law in 1899, and the first federal postal voting legislation was also modelled on the 1896 South Australian act.
Postal votes are available to those who will be absent from their electoral division through travel, or who those are unable to attend a polling booth due to illness, infirmity, "approaching childbirth", caring responsibilities, reasonable fears for their safety, religious beliefs, imprisonment, status as a silent elector, or employment reasons.
Postal voters receive their ballot(s) and a prepaid envelope containing their name and address, as well as a predetermined security question from the PVA.
[16] Postal voting existed in France until 1975, when it was banned (except in very limited circumstances) due to fears of voter fraud.
Like in many other countries, in more recent years voting by mail has become increasingly popular among younger and non-disabled citizens residing within the country; as such, various tools Archived 2021-03-10 at the Wayback Machine are being developed to help citizens, both domestic and abroad, more easily apply for postal voting.
[citation needed] Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that postal voting will be used in the European Parliament Elections on June 9, 2024.
In Malaysia, opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim alleged that postal votes have been used by the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition in securing seats in certain constituencies.
[32] In Malaysia, only teachers, military personnel, and policemen based away from their constituencies are eligible to submit postal votes.
The general practise for local and overseas absentee voting in Philippine elections requires that ballots be cast in person at select polling places, such as a consulate office.
The application must be submitted personally or through a representative in case of illness or disability certified by a medical certificate.
[43] "[T]hese concerns need to be balanced by the fact that it is entirely legitimate for political parties to encourage electors to vote, be it in person or by post".
There is little evidence to support Trump's claim that postal voting enables widespread election fraud.
[58] Following false claim of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Republican state lawmakers began an effort to roll back access to postal voting.
