The Pandemic and Vote Mode Choice in the 2020 Election

In this chapter, we extend our theoretical and empirical examination of the role that party polarization and COVID-19-related risk factors, such as age, play in how people choose to vote, either by mail, early in-person or on Election Day, during the pandemic. We first addressed these questions in the context of the state of New Mexico in our article “Should I vote-by-mail or in-person? The impact of COVID-19 risk factors and partisanship on vote mode decisions in the 2020 presidential election” (Atkeson et al., PLoS One 17, 2022). Here, we compare our New Mexico results to Florida using highly reliable individual-level observational data from official voter administrative records from both states. We find consistent age and party effects in vote mode decision-making across both states and consider the implications of our findings for how health risk and partisanship interact to influence decision-making.