It is dumb but essentially it's because absentee ballots are spelled out in the state constitution and mail ballots are not. And why would Republicans in the General Assembly do anything to help get rid of redundancies or help make voting more accessible and less confusing for all? We could approve a constitutional amendment to fix this discrepancy or we (generalized Republican we) can piss and moan about the mail voting law passed by an R majority in 2019.