Like almost everything mentioned in high frequency on Donald Trump’s Twitter account, mail-in voting is not that complicated. Mail-in voting or absentee voting allows you to vote by mail, which is allowed by the Constitution. Each state has rules in place that regulate who can take part.

Mail-in voting is a hot and controversial topic for two reasons. The first is that we are in the midst of a pandemic, and polling places will have a difficult time meeting social distancing standards. Due to the coronavirus, there is a shortage of poll workers, which has led to the closing of polling places around the nation. This will create a high volume of voters at the few open polling places. Requiring voters to overpopulate polling places will result in a spike of coronavirus cases. Ultimately, mail-in voting will protect election workers and voters from possible exposure to COVID-19 and secure easy access to the Election Day vote.

The second is that there is a swarm of misinformation regarding the security of mail-in voting. Donald Trump and fellow Republicans have issued false information, claiming a high amount of fraud, bribes, counterfeit ballots and other fraudulent maneuvers occur with mail-in voting. In an attempt to help prevent the spread of false claims, Twitter and Facebook have flagged or removed some of President Trump’s tweets. For example, Facebook attached a disclaimer to one of Trump’s posts that read, “Voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the US and the same is predicted this year.”

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Texas allows absentee ballots by mail only to voters unable to vote in person or who meet the eligibility requirements. According to votetexas.org, a voter must “be 65 years or older, be disabled, be out of the county on Election Day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance, or be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible” to qualify for mail-in voting. An application must be filled out and submitted to your local election office; the deadline to do so is October 23. According to vote.org, the ballots must be “postmarked by Election Day (November 3) and received by the day after Election Day (November 4).”