Answer to your question re mail-in ballots - don’t know about early..That has to be very recent! This is interesting:
“”Mail-in voting, which is also known as absentee voting, has essentially been around for as long as the U.S. has been an independent country. According to The U.S. Constitution, the earliest examples of mail-in voting date all the way back to 1775 during the American Revolution, when a team of soldiers from the Continental Army sent a letter to their hometown, requesting to have their votes counted in a local town election.
There were also examples of soldiers using absentee voting during the War of 1812, and in the Civil War, when it was officially turned into a normal option for all citizens serving in the military. Mail-in voting, however, didn’t become an option for non-military citizens until around 1911, when states began allowing citizens to do it as long as the voter had a written “excuse” for not being present. Now, it’s available in all 50 states, that is, unless Trump forbids it in the 2020 election””
Mailin ballots versus absentee ballots—a HUGE difference!
There have always been absentee ballots—but the key thing is you (the individual voter) have to ask for one.
Mailin ballots in some states are sent to EVERY registered voter, and therein lies the problem.
One way people have voted is to not vote. In other words, it was not worth their time and money to go vote, ask for an absentee ballot or because they thought none of the choices mattered.
Ballots mailed to everyone, even those who have no intention, reason or desire to vote can be intercepted or harvested. The worst thing is harvested by activists trying to get votes for their candidates/issues/ballot measures.
This absolutely is a threat to our democracy. A person either votes or does not. No one should ever be allowed to vote in place of another. THAT is fraud.