What Americans Know About the Rules for Voting by Mail

Understanding what the public knows—and doesn’t know—about how to successfully cast a ballot is a necessary step for identifying where the information needs are greatest. To identify the public’s election information needs, Team Election Knowledge has been measuring public knowledge of election laws across the country in a series of different surveys for the past two years. This election cycle, we fielded a survey between October 23 and 30, 2026 that asked a national panel what they know about key election laws in their own state. In this write-up, we concentrate on mail voting rules—whether no-excuse mail voting is an option, whether mistakes on mail ballots can be fixed, and, importantly, the deadline for returning a mail ballot. We preview the topline findings, discuss what they may mean in the final days of the election, and consider the broader relationship between election knowledge and public confidence in ballot counting.

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