Does a meme about mail-in voting correctly describe which countries forbid it? No, the list is misleading regarding some countries, lacks context in some cases and is inaccurate in at least one case by including Japan, which does allow mail-in voting as of April 2024. Many of the countries listed allow absentee or mail-in ballots for citizens who are living outside the country during an election, but not for voters within the country.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on March 27, 2024. It opened:
France banned mail-in voting in 1975 - due to fraud
Mexico banned mail-in voting in 1992 - due to fraud
Belgium banned mail-in voting in 2018 - due to fraud
Sweden does not permit mail-in voting.
Italy does not permit mail-in voting.
Ukraine does not permit mail-in voting.
Russia does not permit mail-in voting.
Japan does not permit mail-in voting.
No middle eastern country permits mail-in voting.
No Latin country permits mail-in voting.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Apr 3 21:40:32 2024 UTC)
Never having mail-in voting ≠ banning
Therese Pearce-Laanela (archived here), the head of electoral processes at International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) (archived here), told Lead Stories that the claims in the post that Mexico and Belgium banned mail-in voting were misleading.
"There is a difference between 'banning' postal voting -- which implies it was allowed before -- and never having had postal voting," she emailed on April 3, 2024. International IDEA is an intergovernmental organization that supports democracy worldwide.
Referring to "special voting arrangements" or SVAs, Pearce-Laanela pointed out that, "Ultimately the question about SVAs, including postal, is also trust building which is in turn influenced by previous use and history of SVAs (special voting arrangements = outside polling station /polling day)."
She also wrote about several countries that do not offer mail-in voting:
Belgium and Mexico (as well as Sweden and many others) have postal voting for voters abroad but have never offered this for in-country. In Belgium there were discussions recently about introducing in-country postal and online, but this has not been agreed.
Here is a breakdown of the countries from the list in the post:
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France
Mail-in voting is not allowed. According to the European Union website for France (archived here), expats must vote in person at polling stations in the country where they live. Pearce-Laanela shared more details about voting in France:
In the Francophonie [countries where French is a customary language] there is a long tradition of proxy voting (cases in which an authorized individual casts or transmits a ballot on behalf of the voter) which to some extent replaces postal voting.
In France there was a discussion about introducing postal voting during the pandemic, but due to the long standing, trusted use of proxy it was decided to focus on proxy voting.
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Mexico
Mail-in voting is not allowed for voters in the country. Mexican expats living abroad will be able to vote via postal service in 2024, according to the government agency that oversees elections in the country, Instituto Nacional Electoral (archived here).
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Belgium
Mail-in voting within the country is not allowed. It is allowed if the citizens are abroad, according to the European Union elections website for Belgium (archived here). Pearce-Laanela said, "In Belgium there were discussions recently about introducing in-country postal and online, but this has not been agreed."
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Sweden
Mail-in voting within the country is not allowed. Mail-in voting is allowed if the citizens are abroad, according to the EU elections website (archived here). Pearce-Laanela explained how people can vote by proxy in the country:
In Sweden there is a similar but slightly different 'messenger' voting where the ballot is brought to the polling station in an envelope (rather than mailed) by a trusted person who could be a rural postman, but also a relative or carer.
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Italy
Mail-in voting is not allowed within the country. Mail-in voting is allowed if the citizens are abroad, according to the EU elections website for Italy (archived here).
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Ukraine
Mail-in voting is not allowed. Since Russia invaded the country in February 2022, national elections have been canceled amid martial law being enacted on February 24, 2022, as the Wilson Center reported (archived here).
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Russia
Mail-in voting is not allowed. Pearce-Laanela explained the status of voting in Russia:
A law was enacted in 2020 (largely to face the pandemic) which allows the possibility of postal voting together with internet voting, pending a decision by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC). In the 2024 elections, CEC decided to use internet voting, but not postal voting. International IDEA noted that they 'and other democracy organizations do not view elections in Russia as fulfilling the minimum requirements of fairness, integrity, transparency and competition that democratic elections should uphold.'
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Japan
Mail-in voting is allowed for citizens who are unable to go to polling stations, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications website (archived here). Expats can vote by mail if they are outside the country during an election.
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Middle Eastern countries
None allow mail-in voting as the Pew Research Center (archived here) reported, which is also confirmed by International IDEA data.
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Latin American countries
None allow mail-in voting as the Pew Research Center (archived here) reported, which is also confirmed by the International IDEA data.
IDEA on voting
International IDEA has two sections on the website that address postal voting around the world. One section with a world map titled,"Global in-country postal voting data," (archived here) shows that Japan does allow mail-in voting:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Apr 3 21:41:17 2024 UTC)
The IDEA section titled, "Voting from Abroad Database," (archived here) with a map and the explanation, "Description Ways of voting from abroad, i.e. existing procedures for casting an external vote" shows the ones that allow voters from abroad to vote in their home country.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Apr 3 21:44:54 2024 UTC)
Other Lead Stories articles on claims involving voting issues are here.
