Deep-red Utah embraced voting by mail. Then came 2020.

By SAM METZ
Associated Press

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Utah was the only Republican-led state that mailed all active voters ballots before the 2020 election made the practice the subject of nationwide controversy. Though the GOP-majority Legislature overwhelmingly approved the state’s mail-in ballot law a decade ago, unsubstantiated worries about election fraud upended consensus and provoked a groundswell of vocal opposition to the overwhelmingly popular practice. Veteran Republican lawmakers in Utah — as well as in states such as Georgia and Nebraska — are stunned by how unproven claims about mail-in ballots and widespread fraud has transformed the policy discussion, but say most voters still prefer to vote by mail.