Just to point out that "early voting" can take several forms, since I believe in the US many states combine (erroneously) mail-in voting with early voting. In

Just to point out that "early voting" can take several forms, since I believe in the US many states combine (erroneously) mail-in voting with early voting. In Australia, early voting can be done at polling places for several weeks before the election (though there's less polling places open obviously). Mail voting is also provided, but I agree with you that it really is something that has questionable merit -- when you're overseas you can vote at the Australian embassy. The only real use-case it serves is people who live in the outback or are worried about personal safety (who are "silent electors" -- where your address is not posted on the public voter roll), and I think that mail voting should only be provided to those people.