An article from the public interest site ProPublica discusses the policy issues involved with employing voting by mail.  From the article:

[O]ften missing from discussions about how to make voting easier is the rapid expansion of absentee balloting. Letting people vote from home means fewer people queuing up at overburdened polling places. So why hasn’t vote-by-mail been heralded as the solution?

When it comes to absentee and mail-in voting, researchers and voting rights advocates aren’t sure the convenience is worth the potential for hundreds of thousands of rejected ballots.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Maryland is one of 27 states that allow absentee ballots for any reason – effectively implementing optional voting by mail upon request.

For information on SB 901, pending legislation to allow voting by mail in Maryland, click here.

To see a complete list of 2013 proposed legislation affecting elections, visit the Maryland General Assembly website.