Implementing the Mail Ballot: In Search of Best Practices

There is a well-established view that exercising the voting right should be as easy as possible, as even minor hurdles can have the effect of excluding voters. In light of these debates, election officials have greatly expanded the options for convenience voting in recent decades, such as providing easier access to a mail ballot. We argue that mail ballots are a double-edged sword. While they make voting more convenient, they are also more difficult to use than in-person ballots as voters have to navigate the additional measures for ensuring the secrecy and security of the ballot. In an effort to realize the best of both worlds, we conduct a systematic review of the European mail voting systems to identify a set of best practices for making voting by mail as easy as possible, while safeguarding the secrecy and security of the vote.