After midterms, GOP reconsidering antipathy to mail ballots

ATLANTA (AP) — In Georgia’s Senate runoff, Republicans once more met the realities of giving Democrats a head start they could not overcome.

According to the tallies provided by the secretary of State, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock built a lead of more than 320,000 votes heading into Tuesday’s election. He beat Republican Herschel Walker almost by a 2-1 ratio in postal ballots and had more than 250,000 extra early, in person votes. The challenger was defeated by almost 97,000 votes, despite Walker winning more votes on Election Day.

It was only the latest example of how Republicans have handed Democrats an advantage in balloting due to former President Donald Trump’s lies about the risks of mail voting. Conservative conspiracy theorists advised GOP voters to hold off until Election Day Before casting their ballots, they spun stories about how this strategy would stop Democrats from manipulating voting machines to steal elections.

The 2020 election saw no widespread fraud or this year’s midterms.

The problem with this strategy is the possibility of unexpected glitches on Election Day.

In Arizona’s most populous county, for example, a printer error created long lines at several voting locations on Nov. 8. Although Republicans lost several state contests, including the governor and secretary-of-state elections, Maricopa County officials claimed that all voters were allowed to vote and that all ballots were counted.

The automatic recount is in the works for Arizona’s race to be elected attorney general.

On Election Day, northern Nevada was hit by a snowstorm that made travel difficult. The Republican candidate for Senate lost the race By 8,000 votes. In Georgia’s runoff, rain drenched the state as the disproportionately Republican crowd finally made its way to the polls.

Overall, the Republican turnout in the midterms was quite strong, which suggests that the party had no problems getting its voters to vote. The Democrats won a Senate seat thanks to Georgia’s loss. Several conservatives were unable to resist the GOP’s attempt to retake the chamber in an election.

“We’ve got to put a priority on competing with Democrats from the start, beat them at their own game,” said Debbie Dooley, a Georgia tea party organizer who remains loyal to Trump but is critical of how he has talked about the U.S. election system.

In Washington, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking GOP leader, told reporters: “We’ve got to get better at turnout operations, especially in states that use mail-in balloting extensively.”

Ronna McDaniel is the chairwoman of Republican National Committee. She stated this week in an interview on Fox News that Republican voters should cast their ballots as soon as possible.

“I have said this over and over again,” she said. “There were many in 2020 saying, ‘Don’t vote by mail, don’t vote early.’ And we have to stop that.”

McDaniel did not name the main person in 2020 who was attacking voting before Election Day — Trump.

When the U.S. went into lockdown during the March 2020 primaries, the nation’s voting system shifted heavily to mail. This method of casting votes was attacked by the then-president., saying Democratic efforts to expand it could lead to “levels of voting that if, you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

Trump claimed that mail balloting would result in massive fraud. He then blamed the imaginary mass fraud For his November loss Even after his own Department of Justice There was no evidence of such organized activity. Trump’s lies helped spur the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, new GOP-backed laws tightening election regulations in Republican-led states and a wave of Republican candidates running for statewide posts In the 2022 elections, who supported his conspiracy theories?

Academic research has shown that mail voting increases turnout but doesn’t benefit either party. However, campaigns are often pushing it. Once they have secured some mail votes, they can concentrate their turnout operations on the laggards to get them voting by Election Day.

Mail voting is also a way to protect yourself from bad weather, equipment malfunctions, traffic jams, and other problems that could deter voters.

In states like Florida, Utah and Utah, Republicans set up strong systems for mail voting and continued expanding their reach. States like Colorado, which mail every voter a paper ballot, found that older conservative-leaning voters were more likely to mail their ballots back.

The GOP is still skeptical about mail balloting. However, it was not a core part of the party’s identity until Trump made it so. Even conservatives who oppose expanding mail voting caution that the party must face reality.

“There is a tension on the right between folks who say, ‘They’re the rules and you’ve got to play by them,’ and those who say, ‘No, you do not,’” said Jason Snead of the Honest Elections Project, a conservative group that advocates for tighter restrictions on mail voting. “I think there’s a lot of reevaluation and reassessment going on.”

“You can stand on principle and say, ‘I am not going to do this,’ but it’s a drag on performance if you do,” Snead said.

He pointed out that Republicans with strong early voting programs like Govs., were winning. Brian Kemp in Georgia and Ron DeSantis in Florida, easily won their elections while those who echoed Trump’s conspiracy theories mostly lost.

One of the most shocking performances by election conspiracy theorists came in Pennsylvania. The Republican candidate for governor had been watching as protesters attacked and destroyed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He lost Pennsylvania by close to 15 percentage points. Also, the GOP lost a seat in the Senate and control over the lower house. Legislative

Democrats out-voted Republicans in mail by more that three times, with 69% of almost 1.25 million postal ballots being cast in the state. This was nearly one-fourth the total of almost 5.4 million ballots.

Republicans who control the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a massive overhaul of the state’s voting system in 2019The law allows anyone to vote by mail. After Trump’s outrage over mail voting, many Republicans were hesitant to vote for Trump in 2020. GOP lawmakers and their aides have since challenged the law in court and inflated the number mail ballots rejected due to technicalities.

State officials from the top parties are now reviewing their performance.

“Republican attitudes on mail-in ballots are going to have to change,” said Sam DeMarco, chair of the Allegheny County GOP. “President Trump is running across the country telling people not to use it, and it’s crushing us.”

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Riccardi reported from Denver. Marc Levy (Associated Press reporter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) contributed to this article.