"...."In this year for the first time in history, all states called in for absentee ballots in the Presidential Election", or something close to that."
Keith,
I think the game show was wrong. It seems to me and I am just doing this from memory, but I think Lincoln asked Sherman if he was able to grant furloughs to the boys from Indiana so they could go home and vote as he needed their votes in that state. I don't really know if there were no absentee ballots in that state but it sure seems to me that there were not or why would Lincoln make that request.
FC