Republicans set to push mail ballots, voting methods they previously blasted as recipes for fraud
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Source: ABC News
ATLANTA -- After years of criticizing mail voting and so-called ballot harvesting as ripe for fraud, Republicans at the top of the party want to change course.
They are poised to launch aggressive get-out-the-vote campaigns for 2024 that employ just those strategies, attempting to match the emphasis on early voting Democrats have used for years to lock in many of their supporters well ahead of Election Day. The goal is to persuade voters who support GOP candidates that early voting techniques are secure and to make sure they are able to return their ballots in time to be counted, thus putting less pressure on Election Day turnout efforts.
It marks a notable shift from the party's rhetoric since 2020, when then-President Donald Trump was routinely sowing doubt about mail voting and encouraging his voters to wait and vote in-person on Election Day. As recently as last year, Republican activists peddling the stolen election narrative were telling GOP voters who received mail ballots to hold onto them and turn them in at their polling place on Election Day rather than use mail or drop boxes.
Now Trump is asking donors to chip in for his ballot harvesting fund saying in a fundraising email, Either we ballot harvest where we can, or you can say goodbye to America! Republicans say the shift is needed to ensure GOP victories up and down the 2024 ballot, arguing they cannot afford to give Democrats any advantage. At the same time, they acknowledge skepticism from many of their own voters conditioned by false claims of widespread voter fraud from Trump and others.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/gop-set-encourage-early-voting-mail-balloting-after-99934501
(too late since the spent the past 3 years claiming mail ballots, that even their beloved military needs to use when voting from overseas, were nothing but "Chinese bamboo paper" fraud)
IronLionZion
(45,261 posts)Moostache
(9,895 posts)Projectionism is the coin of their realm and the whining about voter fraud and election interference is only the latest example of the GOP projecting their own desires and efforts onto everyone else.
If they are now FOR voting by mail, it only means they hit on what they believe is an idea that will allow them to cheat and not be caught. Let's make sure they get caught...
KS Toronado
(16,911 posts)" they believe is an idea that will allow them to cheat and not be caught."
NBachers
(17,007 posts)They figure theyve put enough of their Q-Maggots in place that they can throw the election their way.
hippywife
(22,767 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,323 posts)is that they were essentially doing this as a "test" in their own red areas because if they tried to do it in blue areas, it will backfire just based on the registrations, and they would get caught.
They operate by getting "just enough" to throw a close election but although the "planners" of the fraud know the whats and hows, their MAGat population has been brainwashed and drenched in the idea to NOT trust "mail ballots", no matter what, and they will even call efforts done by their own to take advantage that method, nothing more than a "false flag" by "Chinese Communist Socialist Democrats".
As it is, at least here in Philly, the reality is that we only had about 1/3rd of our Democrats (and here in the city, Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-1) vote by mail. The other 2/3rds preferred to go "in person".
Qutzupalotl
(14,230 posts)short of pulling out all votes from registered Dems and destroying them. But even then people could see that their vote was not received, and cry foul. They might win one election that way, but someone would get prosecuted for mail tampering and maybe civil rights violations.
It's possible that they are just playing catch up to us, perhaps envious of our ability to almost coast on election day, going in with a big lead.
AnrothElf
(509 posts)Gaslight
Obstruct
Project
... that's the GOP
rainy
(6,085 posts)so many more in republican areas!
live love laugh
(13,009 posts)OMGWTF
(3,901 posts)It works great in seven states and the military has used it since the Civil War. No pesky electronic vote-stealing machines, no lines to wait in, no bullshit at the polling place, and best of all -- there's a paper ballot.
I was a Democratic election observer in Pierce County, Washington and am confident that the votes are counted as accurately as possible.
dflprincess
(28,057 posts)I wouldn't trust the USPS with my ballot.
democratsruletheday
(459 posts)hope this is too. BTW: que the orange anus to come out and slam it as he did before. I'd almost expect it.
ga_girl
(182 posts)I could easily see an increase of voter registrations that can't be double checked, and those voters using VBM.
AllaN01Bear
(17,383 posts)their plan backfired. in my county,things are so spread out that the only way is 4 ppl to vote by mail. i also vote by mail as i dont drive .kudos for vote by mail and remote drop boxes .
BumRushDaShow
(127,323 posts)(a/k/a "no excuse absentee ballots) as a "sweetener" to get our then-(D) governor to sign other changes to the Election law - notably to get rid of the "straight party ballot" where someone could just select one option to vote for all the candidates of a single party on the ballot (which is what Democrats in urban areas tended to do because it was faster and they can be in and out of the polling place).
That happened literally October 2019, just before the 2020 Presidential primary season (and a pandemic), and like you mention about a "backfire", the MAGat elected (R)s here then suddenly found themselves having to renounce something that they literally unanimously passed (except for a single (R) and a single (D) who was opposed to getting rid of straight party voting), all because their fearless leader and his minions, claimed mail ballots were all "fraudulent".
Just before we elected a (D) for governor for an unprecedented 3rd time in a row AND took back our state House in 2022, they were trying to pass a Constitutional amendment to repeal the mail ballots and put all kinds of draconian voter-suppression schemes in place.
Major Nikon
(36,814 posts)Their basic problem is trying to get an increasingly larger share of a shrinking demographic. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that eventually reaches the point of diminishing returns. At that point all that's left is voter suppression and outright treason. Basic democracy is their greatest enemy which at some point will defeat them.
Texas is where it all comes together. In 2014, Cornyn won over 61% of the vote without even trying. In 2018, Ted Cruz won with less than 51% of the vote despite costing the GOP a shitton of cash. Trump just barely got 52% of the Texas vote in the last Presidential election. Statewide elections keep getting closer and closer and eventually the GOP is just going to lose Texas forever and as Texas goes so does the entire GOP.
CosmicSloth
(13 posts)Geez, you'd think that republicans would get the message that has been proven over time that people will vote for you IF you have any ideas that are worth voting for. Recently, they've continually pushed the culture war crap, double down on it, triple down on it, then elected unqualified awful candidates that run on these views figuring if they don't win, it's (massive) voter fraud or some other external conspiracy.
Now they are thinking that mail in voting will help them win elections - because their enemies the "Ds" have been so successful with it as it helps us circumvent the roadblocks to in person voting they themselves constructed.
We've had all mail in voting here in Washington for many years, and very rarely a republican has been elected to a state office. The last one ironically, was our former SOS who implemented the all mail-in voting and is now working for the Biden administration .
So go ahead republicans, it has nothing to do with people not getting your "great" policy visions, it's all about mail in voting.
TheRickles
(2,000 posts)cstanleytech
(26,082 posts)as to enact laws that place roadblocks in the way.
WestMichRad
(1,282 posts)Do I need a sarcasm tag here?
Hope22
(1,644 posts)With no way to search interstate voting records and the program failing, republicans will be free to vote in more than one state without detection. Makes sense that they would call in the clowns to vote in every fashion.
..
In a press release Monday, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, said the voting organization didn't do enough to secure data privacy or "eliminate ERIC's partisan tendencies."
Just weeks ago, a January report from the Florida Department of State Office of Election Crimes and Security said it had "used data provided by ERIC to identify" hundreds of voters who appeared to have voted in Florida and in another ERIC member state in the same election.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161374479/electronic-registration-information-center-eric-florida-missouri-west-virginia
Rebl2
(13,311 posts)way they know to win is cheat.
Rocknation
(44,555 posts)He was the victim of the MAJORITY of the early voters (as per this oldie but goodie):
With a combination of overall higher turnout (despite the voter suppression attacks); most of Biden's votes being cast early or by mail; and only about just one third of the votes actually being cast ON Election Day, maybe there just weren't enough blue in-person machine votes to flip.
So exactly how is ballot harvesting supposed to work in the GOP's favor -- by SUBTRACTING the number of Dem machine votes from the handed-in GOP ballots? Ironically, when I mailed in my ballot two days ago, I noticed that the instructions read that I could drop it off at my polling place as well as in a mailbox or ballot dropbox. I decided on the drop box since it was on my errand-running route, and because the last mailbox pickup in my neighborhood is 1PM.
Rocknation
BumRushDaShow
(127,323 posts)as well as states that have GOP-controlled legislatures and (D) governors, have been trying to reduce or eliminate the "drop boxes".
So they are going to have some hurdles to overcome to convince their zombie hordes about the value of "mail voting" when they have ensured that doing it would be difficult unless they reverse all those laws and Constitutional amendments that they passed.
madeup64
(256 posts)Tell me that you completely lied about the people you purport to care about regarding everything that you have said for the last three and a half years regarding mail in voter fraud and voter fraud in general simply because you knew that increased mail in voting gave your opponents an advantage and instead of working harder to minimize that Advantage like you tell poor people to do it was easier to lie and steal because your leader is a narcissistic, selfish child who, unlike most normal adults are, will never be able to utter the words, "I lost;" Without telling me you completely lied about the people you purport to care about regarding everything that you have said for the last three and a half years regarding mail in voter fraud and voter fraud in general simply because you knew that increased mail in voting gave your opponents an advantage and instead of working harder to minimize that Advantage like you tell poor people to do it was easier to lie and steal because your leader is a narcissistic, selfish child who will never be able to utter the words, "I lost."
GP6971
(31,017 posts)Anticipatory. Please feel free to re-post in GD.