Combining pre-pandemic policies with changes made as a result of the pandemic, voters had more options for casting ballots in 2020 than ever before.
Before 2020, five states had universal mail-in voting, and 25 allowed any voter to request a ballot by mail for any reason. Those states made no changes – nor did five states that required voters to cite particular reasons before being allowed to vote by mail.
For the 2020 election 11 states expanded their vote-by-mail rules to remove the requirement for a reason, or to allow concerns about COVID-19 as an additional reason. And four more, plus the District of Columbia, adopted universal mail-in voting, at least for that year.