In the age of COVID, the ability of voters to resort to absentee voting has come to the forefront of the minds of politicians and voters alike. However, this question is as old as democracy itself. With the extension of suffrage, the right to vote by mail would follow from the need to give all citizens the right to vote, even those that were unable to do so at the voting day with a ballot in hand. Voters in various occupations could be restricted from being in the country, to take time off, long-travel distances or sick. However, concerns of voter fraud and abuse were raised by opponents of absentee voting. This raised the question of to what extent should the state ease voter’s ability to participate in the political process by allowing for absentee voting? Even if this might go against the demand of voting secrecy or even increase the likelihood of electoral malfeasance. We first argue that this concern becomes politized with the extension of the vote to the lower classes. Parties and politician split in opposition or support of absentee voting depending on the likelihood to which they benefited from the system of absentee voting. We then then use extensive Roll-Call Vote data on postal voting in Norway between 1880 to 1930s to ascertain the incentives of politicians to restrict or grant absentee voting rights and curtail said rights for various groups.