Because the economically disadvantaged part of the US population (which disproportionately affects minorities) can't afford to take a day off from work to vote, so voting by mail is a good way for them to vote without a personal downside.
Alternatively this could be fixed by making Election Day a national holiday and/or setting up more polling locations.
Much of the rest of the democratic world looked upon those reports of people waiting all day, sometimes 10+ hours in a queue and thought "it took me 5 minutes where I live".
In countries without long queues to vote, you don't need to take a day off work.
Oh, I agree. That's what I wanted to suggest with more polling places.
Another way would be to hold elections on a Sunday instead of the middle of the week. There seem to be a number of fairly simple ways to improve on the way US voting works, and it's baffling that none of them are implemented.
It took me less than 15m to vote on Tuesday, no lines or anything (deep red county). I've heard of people waiting for hours but that's because their local govt failed them (not enough locations, under-staffed, etc).
IMO seems more accurate to say in-person voting disproportionately affects incompetent municipalities.
I mean a deep red county that will stay red whether they correctly reflect their populations leanings or not, so there is little incentive to suppress any voting efforts, right? That's in contrast to a currently-elected-light-red county where the population is slightly leaning blue, but can't express that due to hindrances in the voting process (you can flip the colors if you want).
Alternatively this could be fixed by making Election Day a national holiday and/or setting up more polling locations.