Mail-In Voting Begins As First State Sends Out Ballots Weeks From Election Day

Alabama began sending out the first mail-in ballots to voters on Wednesday, over 50 days out from the November election, according to CNN.

Alabama residents who requested mail-in ballots will be the first to lock in their vote for the upcoming local, state and presidential races, with Wisconsin rolling out their mail-in ballots the following week on September 19, CNN reported. North Carolina was supposed to have kickstarted mail-in voting, but the state was held up by a court order to reprint their ballots after former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. withdrew from the race and appealed to have his name be taken off.

Officials in over 20 states will start sending mail-in ballots later this month, including Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Mississippi, Oregon and Vermont, according to NBC.

The National Association of State Election Directors and other officials voiced concerns in a Wednesday letter about the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) capacity to process and deliver the millions of ballots in time. In previous election cycles, mail-in ballots arrived at