If you’ve spent any time on social media or watching the news lately, you’ve probably heard some pretty wild claims about how the rest of the world handles elections. There’s this persistent idea floating around that the United States is some kind of rogue outlier when it comes to the mailbox. You’ve likely heard it: "No other country does this," or "Everywhere else requires you to show up in person with three forms of ID and a blood sample."
Well, honestly? That’s just not true.
But it’s also not quite as simple as saying every country is exactly like Oregon or Washington state. The reality is a messy, fascinating patchwork of laws that vary wildly from one border to the next. Some countries have been doing this since before your grandparents were born. Others tried it, hated it, and went back to the old-school booths.
So, do other countries have mail in voting? They definitely do. But how they do it might surprise you.
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The Global "Postal" Club
According to data from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), as of late 2025, about 34 countries or territories allow some form of "postal voting" for citizens living within their own borders.
That might sound like a small number out of nearly 200 countries, but look at who is on the list. We’re talking about some of the most stable democracies on the planet. Canada, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Australia all use the mail to collect ballots.
Switzerland is the heavyweight champion here. In some Swiss cantons, roughly 90% of voters cast their ballots by mail. They’ve basically turned it into a national pastime. It’s not a "special" thing there; it’s just how you vote.
No-Excuse vs. "Show Me Your Reason"
The biggest distinction you’ll find globally is whether you need an "excuse" to get a ballot in the mail.
In the UK, it’s "on-demand." Since 2001, if you want to vote by mail, you just ask. No need to prove you’re sick or traveling. Germany is the same way. They’ve had postal voting since 1957, but they dropped the "reason" requirement in 2008. Now, about 37% of Germans—over 18 million people—voted by post in the 2025 federal election.
Then you have countries like Australia. They’re a bit more old-school. While they’ve had mail-in options since 1902, they generally expect you to have a reason—like being more than 8km from a polling place or having religious objections to voting on a Saturday.
Why Some Countries Said "No Thanks"
It isn't all sunshine and stamps, though. Some countries have looked at mail-in voting and walked away.
Take France. They actually had mail-in voting until 1975. They banned it because of fears regarding fraud and "family voting"—the idea that the head of a household might pressure everyone else to vote a certain way at the kitchen table. Today, if you can’t make it to the polls in France, you use "proxy voting." You basically deputize a friend to go flip the switch for you.
Austria provides a weird cautionary tale. In 2016, they actually had to redo their entire presidential runoff election. Why? Because of technicalities in how the postal ballots were handled. It wasn't "massive fraud" in the way people usually mean it, but rather a mess of procedural errors—like opening the envelopes too early or using the wrong glue on the seals.
It just goes to show: the system is only as good as the people running the machines.
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The Security Gap: US vs. The World
One thing that really separates the US from the rest of the world is ballot tracking.
In many US states, you can get a text notification when your ballot is mailed, when it’s received, and when it’s counted. Most other countries don't have that level of granular transparency yet.
Another big difference? Ballot curing.
In the US, if you forget to sign your envelope, some states have a process where they contact you to fix it. Internationally, that’s almost unheard of. If you mess up your envelope in the UK or Germany, your vote is usually just gone. They don't have the "curing" culture we’ve built up here.
How the Rest of the World Secures the Mail
If you’re wondering how these countries keep things honest, it’s usually a mix of two things:
- Strict ID links: In many systems, you have to provide a "security question" or a specific ID number that matches your voter registration before the ballot is even issued.
- Centralized Control: Most countries have one national election office. In the US, we have thousands of local counties doing things their own way. This makes the US system harder to "hack" on a national level but much more confusing for the average person to follow.
In South Korea, they use mail-in voting primarily for people with disabilities or those in remote areas, and the verification is intense. They don't just "send them out" to everyone. You have to be on a specific registry.
The Takeaway for You
So, the next time someone tells you that "civilized countries" only vote in person, you can give them the real story.
Mail-in voting is a standard tool in the democratic toolbox, used by millions of people from Vancouver to Berlin. It’s not a "US-only" experiment, but the US is unique in how decentralized and high-tech its tracking has become.
What to do next:
If you're curious about how your own local system compares to these global examples, your best bet is to check the International IDEA Special Voting Arrangements database. It’s the gold standard for seeing which countries allow what. You might find that your local county’s rules have more in common with Switzerland than with the state next door.
Check your own registration status early—whether you’re in a "mail-only" state or a "show-up-in-person" country, the deadlines catch everyone off guard eventually.