A Brief History of Voting by Mail (Patreon)

A Brief History of Voting By Mail (feat. The Cynical Historian)

Mr. Beat goes through the history of voting by mail. Please vote. https://imvoting.com/ Download Newsvoice for free here to support my channel: https://newsvoice.com/mrbeat Don't forget to check out@The Cynical Historian's video: Produced by Matt Beat. All images/video by Matt Beat, found in the public domain, or used under fair use guidelines. Music by Electric Needle Room (Mr. Beat's band). Download songs for free at: https://electricneedleroom.bandcamp.com/ Have a great idea for a Mr. Beat video? Your idea gets picked when you donate on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/iammrbeat Buy my Presidential Elections book? https://amzn.to/3fdakiZ Donate on Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/mrbeat Buy Mr. Beat T-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.: https://sfsf.shop/support-mrbeat/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/mrbeat/ Mr. Beat's band: http://electricneedleroom.net/ Mr. Beat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/beatmastermatt Mr. Beat on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iammrbeat/ Mr. Beat on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iammrbeat Mr. Beat's Discord server: https://discord.gg/waK44fH Special thanks to the AP Archive for additional footage for this video. It made a huge difference! AP Archive website: http://www.aparchive.com Sources/further reading: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/08/how-mail-in-voting-began-on-civil-war-battlefields/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_voting_in_the_United_States https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/how-do-you-know-voting-mail-works-u-s-military-n1186926 History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire edited by Duane Hamilton Hurd https://www.theusconstitution.org/blog/president-trump-ignores-the-long-history-of-absentee-ballots/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2007.tb00075.x https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/vote-by-mail-states/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/poll-majority-americans-intend-vote-early-election-n1238912 #mailinvoting #votingbymail #2020election It all started in what would become the United States of America. One of the earliest known instances of voting by mail was during the American Revolution. Say what? It’s true. In December 1775, a group of Continental Army soldiers couldn’t make it back home to vote in Hollis, New Hampshire. So, the town let the soldiers deliver their votes via a letter. Some soldiers also voted by mail during the War of 1812. During that war, Pennsylvania let soldiers vote by mail if they were stationed more than two miles from their home. Woah, TWO WHOLE MILES. Hey that was even before trains ok? The first widespread use of voting by mail occurred during the American Civil War. For the thousands of soldiers stationed far away from home, nineteen states changed their laws to allow them to vote using an absentee ballot. An absentee ballot is a ballot completed and mailed in advance of an election by a voter who simply couldn’t be physically present in their home district. The first time I voted was through an absentee ballot in the election of 2000. I was in college and couldn’t make it back home on Election Day. Not all mail-in ballots are absentee ballots, though. Just a few years after the Civil War ended, on the other side of the world, parts of Australia had begun experimenting with voting by mail. By 1906, the whole country was letting certain citizens send in ballots through the mail. Just a side note, Australia has a long history of being ahead of the curve when it comes to democracy. Anyway, back in the United States, more and more states were passing laws to expand absentee voting to civilians. By 1924, almost all of the states had allowed at least some of its citizens to vote by mail in certain circumstances. And this idea even spread around the world. Canada, in 1917. West Germany, in 1957. Switzerland, 1970. In fact, the Swiss liked mail-in voting so much that today the majority of Swiss vote by mail. In 1998, the U.S. state of Oregon became the first state to require ALL elections be conducted by mail. That said, voters still have the option to drop their ballots off at official drop sites. Since, Oregon has saved a lot of money but has spent much more time tallying up the votes. Today, Washington State, Colorado, Hawaii, and Utah also conduct their elections entirely by mail, and many other states also have counties and/or small elections where everyone votes by mail. Not only that, but today dozens of countries around the world also allow voting by mail. Still, even though it’s been around for awhile now in a lot of places, it remains controversial. In fact, it has been controversial ever since it was first widespread back during the Civil War.