Republicans look to erase stigma on early voting

Republicans are urgently trying to erase the stigma over early mail voting among many of their voters as the party works to catch up with Democrats in 2024.

Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee (RNC) rolled out its “Bank Your Vote” campaign to encourage GOP voters to get comfortable with the practice ahead of 2024. And former President Trump, the front-runner in the GOP primary who for years has cast doubt on early voting and mail ballots, has over the past few months begun to urge voters to embrace those methods after a disappointing midterm election.

“We don’t want to wait till the fourth quarter to start scoring touchdowns,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said during a press call announcing the mail voting campaign earlier this month.

“We’re going to lead the charge on getting the Republican ecosystem to chase ballots and build an advantage before Election Day.”

Some divisions within the party are apparent as GOP voters remain skeptical of mail voting after Trump and his closest allies heaped doubt on the process in 2020. Only over the past few months, after Republicans failed to take back the Senate and only managed to flip the House by a slim margin, have the staunchest critics in the party somewhat changed their tune.

Trump’s campaign notably pivoted on the issue earlier this year, when it began urging Republicans to embrace so-called ballot harvesting, which is the process of allowing third parties to collect and submit absentee and mail ballots.

“Either we ballot harvest in the states where it’s legal, or you can say goodbye to our country, because the Democrats would win EVERY election,” his campaign wrote in a fundraising email in February.

The former president later implored Republican voters to rethink mail-in ballots and early voting during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March.

“Republicans must compete using every lawful means to win,” Trump said. “That means swamping the left with mail-in votes, early votes and Election Day votes. We have to do it.”

It’s not just Trump, either. Some of his closest allies have begun to shift on voting amid signs their opposition to early mail voting could pose a threat to the party’s chances next year. Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake last month announced a ballot-chasing initiative aimed at registering new voters and keeping track of Republican and independent voters, including those on early voting lists. During her address, Lake appeared to recognize the need for Republicans to rethink their approach to collecting ballots.

“We’ve been playing checkers. They’ve been playing chess,” Lake said at the event announcing the operation. “We’re going to show up to a knife fight with a gun.”

Trump and Lake were some of the loudest vocal opponents of voting by mail, both claiming without evidence that mail-in ballots contributed to fraud in the 2020 and 2022 elections. Their abrupt shift has left some wondering whether voters will follow suit, though McDaniel says the party is more unified on the issue than ever.

“We’ve always had paid voter contact or volunteers trying to bank as many votes as possible,” McDaniel said. “But that certainly is a challenge if you have people in your ecosystem saying don’t vote early or don’t vote by mail and those cross messages do have an impact.”

“I don’t think you’re seeing that heading into 2024. I think you’re seeing all of us singing from the same songbook,” she said.

Trump’s top rival in the Republican presidential primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, told one voter in Iowa last month that he embraces ballot harvesting, noting the difference in the practices between Florida and other states.

“We’re gonna do ballot harvesting. I’m doing it, yes,” DeSantis said.

“Each state is different,” he continued. “In Nevada, they sent everyone a ballot, which is bad but we’re going to do ballot harvesting. I’m not going fight with one hand tied behind my back.”

Last year, DeSantis signed legislation that established an Office of Election Crimes and Security under Florida’s Department of State that would conduct investigations and look into voter fraud allegations. Additionally, the law includes penalties for ballot harvesting.

“They’ve put in such good protections that there’s a lot of confidence in voting in Florida where you may lack that in other states,” said Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida GOP.

McDaniel noted on the press call that the RNC had also pushed for more protection, through the recruitment of 80,000 poll watchers and poll workers, as well as the filing of 100 election integrity lawsuits in the 2022 cycle.

“I hope that once Republicans do take power in some places, they could conceivably look at actually strengthening the election system by bringing some of those safeguards to the early and mail voting process,” said Jason Snead, the executive director of the Honest Elections Project, a group that pushes for more restrictive voting laws.

Ahead of last year’s midterm elections, DeSantis encouraged voters to cast their ballots early in case they were not able to get to the polls on Election Day.

“If you wait till Election Day, you get a flat tire, you can’t take a mulligan,” DeSantis told a crowd at a campaign stop in Florida last year. “Whereas if you vote early, you do it, you’re in the can. If something happens [while you’re on your way], you got another shot at it.”

Florida Republicans saw major victories up and down the ballot last cycle, with DeSantis winning reelection by nearly 20 points and Republicans flipping the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County.

“We’re probably the only place that had a red wave last cycle,” Ziegler said. “We’re operating with a lot more confidence than other areas, but with that said, the Democrat Party has embraced vote by mail across the country for various reasons, and we can’t just sit back and wait for Election Day.”

“I think there’s a strong desire from my conversations with Republicans in other states of whatever it takes to win,” he said. “You’ve seen President Trump, you’ve seen Gov. DeSantis come out and say look we need to change the election laws but until we do, we need to kick the Democrats’ ass at their own game.”