Meanwhile, Democrats—worried the soldiers’ votes would hurt McClellan’s chances of winning—warned of voter fraud and tried to block efforts to legalize absentee ballots.

“The soldiers are not asking or demanding any such privilege or right,” wrote F.O. Thorpe, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, “and in our opinion it is simply a scheme of leading partisans in the dominant party … to gain some great advantage to their party in the future.”

While Wisconsin’s mostly Republican legislature was able to quash Thorpe’s dissent, state legislatures with Democratic majorities, like Illinois’s and Indiana’s, didn’t pass laws allowing soldiers to vote in absentia.

Overall, about 150,000 out of 1 million soldiers (in the Union only; the Confederacy held its own election) were able to vote by mail. Since Lincoln won the popular vote by more than 408,000 votes—and the electoral vote with 212 over McClellan’s paltry 21—it’s unlikely those absentee ballots actually swung the election in his favor, but they did set the precedent for expanded absentee voting laws for wars (and pandemics) in years to come.

Meanwhile, Democrats—worried the soldiers’ votes would hurt McClellan’s chances of winning—warned of voter fraud and tried to block efforts to legalize absentee ballots.

“The soldiers are not asking or demanding any such privilege or right,” wrote F.O. Thorpe, a Democratic senator from Wisconsin, “and in our opinion it is simply a scheme of leading partisans in the dominant party … to gain some great advantage to their party in the future.”

While Wisconsin’s mostly Republican legislature was able to quash Thorpe’s dissent, state legislatures with Democratic majorities, like Illinois’s and Indiana’s, didn’t pass laws allowing soldiers to vote in absentia.

Overall, about 150,000 out of 1 million soldiers (in the Union only; the Confederacy held its own election) were able to vote by mail. Since Lincoln won the popular vote by more than 408,000 votes—and the electoral vote with 212 over McClellan’s paltry 21—it’s unlikely those absentee ballots actually swung the election in his favor, but they did set the precedent for expanded absentee voting laws for wars (and pandemics) in years to come.