Saturday, September 14, 2024

Ballot harvesting laws by state

 Most states have laws permitting someone besides a voter to return the voter's mail ballot. These laws vary by state. Mail ballots take the form of absentee ballots and ballots cast in vote-by-mail states.

As of June 2024:[1][2]

  • 24 states and D.C. permitted someone chosen by the voter to return mail ballots on their behalf in most cases
  • 15 states specified who may return ballots (i.e., household members, caregivers, and/or family members) in most cases
  • 1 state explicitly allowed only the voter to return their ballot
  • 10 states did not specify whether someone may return another's ballot

To learn which states fall into each category, see the map below.

See the state-by-state details section below to learn more about your state's mail ballot laws, and state legislation for active, state legislation related to ballot collection.

Whether states should place restrictions on who may return mail ballots is the subject of debate. Those who support restricting who may return mail ballots often refer to the practice of campaign and union workers returning ballots as ballot harvesting. Other terms used to reference this practice include ballot collectioncommunity ballot collectionballot gatheringthird-party possession of another's ballot, and ballot returnClick here for more on support and opposition arguments.

Laws by state: Summary

Map

The following map provides a summary of who was permitted to collect and return mail ballots by state as of June 2024. See below for additional details.

More Here: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_harvesting_laws_by_state

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