I see this come up a lot in discussions about voting in America. Postal votes disproportionately go to Democrats, hence the Democrats want to expand postal voting while Republicans want to restrict it (and insist there is totally a bunch of fraud going on).
I’ve googled with a few search engines and haven’t found a convincing reason. Lots of evidence that the skew is real, but no explanation as to why. Indeed, if one just looks at demographics, one would expect postal voting to benefit Republicans by facilitating votes from people in the countryside who live far away from voting centers.
So what actually gives?
Work.
Working people can’t take off time to vote. Poor people can’t take off time to vote. Students, teachers, can’t take off time to vote. So in-person voting favors retirees, wealthy people, and business owners like farmers who can set their own hours.
Transport too. For a poor person getting to a specific place on a specific day is a thing. It’s probably doable but if it’s not a priority… and both sides are the same… and your kid is unwell… and your vote doesn’t really make a difference.
OTOH a postal vote is very achievable.
Voting in cities is crazy. Like hours long wait times, you have to be very determined to vote. In person voting is much easier in less densely populated areas. Cities tend to be more liberal.
Depends on the local government in those cities. I’ve always lived in cities and never had to wait more than 5 minutes to vote.