Two years ago, an estimated 50 million U.S. citizens cast absentee ballots, voted early or used other nontraditional voting methods, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s more than one-third of the 130 million votes cast in 2016.

It’s quite a commentary on a concept that Ned Chiodo pioneered 42 years ago this week, when he won a write-in campaign for the Democratic nomination to represent the south side of Des Moines in the Iowa Legislature.

Chiodo says his 1976 race was the first modern campaign to make significant use of absentee voting. I cannot confirm that, but neither can I find any evidence to refute it.

To be sure, absentee ballots have been around a long time. 

According to the Pew Center, “Absentee voting began during the Civil War as a convenience for Union soldiers,” who were instrumental in the 1864 re-election of Abraham Lincoln.

“By the middle of the 20th century most states had adopted some form of absentee balloting for civilians as well as members of the military,” according to the Pew Center’s website. In the 1970s and ’80s, it added, “states began experimenting with other types of nontraditional voting.” 

One of the earliest experimenters was Chiodo, who had barely lost Democratic primaries in 1972 and 1974 to incumbent Jim Caffrey. Chiodo was preparing to run for a third time in 1976 in Caffrey’s solidly Democratic district when Caffrey said that if Chiodo waited two years, Caffrey would retire and endorse him.

Chiodo, who was 33 at the time, agreed and did not file nomination papers. 

Caffrey died of heart attack a month before the election, but after the deadline for nomination papers.

Only one person had filed nomination papers, Georgena Alexander, who lived on the northern edge of Caffrey’s Des Moines district. Normally, she would not have stood a chance in the heavily south-side district. But after Caffrey’s name was removed from the ballot, Alexander appeared to be the only option. 

Chiodo met with a group of 10 supporters who encouraged him to run as a write-in candidate.

Although write-ins rarely win, Chiodo explained that his advisers “had a ton of relatives. We figured the turnout would be 1,200 to 1,500. So, we only needed 700 to 800 votes to win.” 

One problem they faced was Chiodo’s name. It is easy to misspell, and unless it appeared letter perfect, write-in ballots would not be counted. 

Another complication was voting machines. At that time, to write in a name, voters had to pull the correct voting lever, then lift a metal tab and write in the name. It was difficult, particularly for short persons who had difficulty reaching the metal tab in vertical voting machines.   

Chiodo started by persuading friendly voters to request and receive absentee ballots, a task that was further complicated because in 1976 a notary public had to witness each submission.  

The campaign also had to explain how to write in Chiodo’s name on Election Day. To do that they had an artist draw a step-by-step, comic-strip-style explanation showing how to pull the lever, lift the metal tab, and paste in the name “Ned F. Chiodo.”

To ensure the correct name appeared on ballots, “Ned F. Chiodo” was preprinted on thousands of sticky labels that voters could paste on the write-in slot behind the voting machines’ metal tabs. 

On June 8, 1976, Chiodo received, 1,314 votes to 758 for Alexander with 514 absentee votes providing the bulk of his 556-vote margin. 

Chiodo’s victory was challenged but stood up, thereby knocking down traditions that held that voters had to be sick or out of town to cast an absentee ballot.

Today, his strategy is widely used by candidates in both parties.