Does it appear that rejection rates for mail ballots were much lower than expected in the 2020 general election?

The 2020 expansion in mail voting prompted by the coronavirus pandemic spurred worries that more voters would make disqualifying mistakes on their ballots. Early figures indicate errors were much less frequent than in 2016 or 2018.

The share of mail ballots nationwide that were rejected increased from 1% in 2016 to 1.4% in 2018, according to Ballotpedia. Initial counts suggest rates in 2020 were well under those levels: 0.2% of mail ballots were rejected in Georgia, 0.15% in Iowa, 0.1% in Michigan, 0.8% in North Carolina, and 0.03% in Pennsylvania.

Many states simplified rules and extended deadlines this year. Wide publicity about mail voting and voter-outreach efforts may have helped reduce errors as well. Additionally, litigation in the past two years led to a dozen more states creating processes for correcting (curing) ballots, joining seven that already permitted the practice.