What is ballot harvesting and in which US states is it legal?
Emily Cortez
Published Feb 05, 2026
Polling form reaping is the assortment and accommodation of finished non-attendant or remote citizen voting forms
26 US states permit citizens to assign somebody to return their polling form, with impediments in some
Allies contend it grows casting a ballot access, while pundits caution of likely maltreatment and obstruction
Donald Trump, in front of his Waco, Texas rally, pushed on the need of voting form reaping. The previous President is supposed to talk about his perspectives on the equivalent.
Trump has been vocally against remote and early democratic. As the group at his convention paused, a video of the previous President was circulated. He was seen saying that his mission will take part in “polling form collecting” in states where it’s as yet legitimate.
“We start voting form gathering or we express farewell to our country.”
What is polling form collecting? Polling form reaping is the social event and submitting of finished non-attendant or remote elector voting forms by outsider people, volunteers or laborers, instead of accommodation by citizens themselves straightforwardly to voting form assortment destinations.
A contend that it gives help to underestimated gatherings, while others dread that it could prompt altering or disposing of voting forms. The discussion around polling form gathering has strengthened because of the Coronavirus pandemic and the normal expansion in truant democratic.
26 states permit an elector to assign somebody to return their polling form. Nonetheless, twelve of those states limit the quantity of voting forms that the designee can gather, and ten states just permit relatives to return the voting form.
In California, any individual can gather a non-attendant polling form, however installment in view of the quantity of voting forms gathered is disallowed. Pennsylvania doesn’t permit voting form assortment, yet there are no reasonable regulations around voting form drop boxes.
Allies contend that voting form gathering grows casting a ballot access for seniors, impaired residents, low-pay gatherings, and Local Americans. In any case, pundits caution of the gamble of misuse and obstruction, prompting an absence of confidence in the constituent cycle.
Advocates propose that staff and volunteers from ideological groups should gather voting forms to guarantee responsibility and straightforwardness.
The discussion over voting form reaping keeps on partitioning conclusions. Allies accept it extends admittance to casting a ballot, while pundits caution of its true capacity for misuse. While certain states have passed regulations to direct the training, others actually have a ton of ill defined situations. It is not yet clear the way that the issue will be tended to from now on.