In the U.S., absentee/ mail voting surged in the 2020 primaries % oftotal votes cast absentee/by mail
Mail-in voting – often called absentee voting or vote-by-mail – has slowly but steadily gained in popularity in the United States. And it received a big boost this year as primary season ran head-on into the novel coronavirus pandemic. Mail-in ballots accounted for just over half of this year’s primary votes cast in the 37 states (plus the District of Columbia) for which data is available. That was roughly double the mail-in share of the vote in those same jurisdictions in the 2018 and 2016 general elections.
In the U.S., absentee/ mail voting  | surged in the 2020 primaries  | % oftotal votes cast absentee/by mail  | 2016 general  | 24.9  | 2018 general  | 27.4  | 2020 primaries  | 50.3  | Note: 2016 and 2018 figures were calculated based on a Pew  | Research Center analysis of data from U.S. Election Assistance  | Commission's Election Administration and Voting Survey.  | 2016 and 2018 figures refer to the same group of 37 states  | and the District of Columbia for which data was available.  | Source: Pew Research Center analysis of state election  | data; EAC  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 