Voters cast 36,683,450 absentee/mail-in ballots in the 2022 general election. Of that total 549,824—or 1.5%—were rejected, roughly equal to the 1.4% rejection rate in 2018, the most recent midterm election, and up from the 1.0% and 0.8% rejection rates in the 2016 and 2020 presidential election cycles, respectively.
Between the midterm election cycles in 2018 and 2022, the absentee/mail-in ballot rejection rate increased in 17 states. It decreased in 31, and Washington, D.C. Comparative data was unavailable for Alabama and Mississippi.
