New data from the midterm elections show how much Donald Trump’s crusade against early voting is hurting the GOP, The Hill reported.
The results clearly showed that making it easier to vote early or by mail did not lead to voter fraud.
While voting methods have become deeply polarized by party, expanding access to early and mail voting does not appear to benefit one party over the other.
Election data from three states that dramatically expanded the ability to cast ballots before Election Day, either early or by mail, demonstrate that the voting methods that were decidedly uncontroversial before Trump do not clearly help either party.
Vermont, Kentucky, and Nevada saw an expanded availability of mail and early voting. These politically mixed states had laws passed by both parties.
Therefore, the data shows that Republicans do not do themselves any favors when they follow in Trump’s footsteps and vilify early voting. If anything, it will harm them, as it puts more pressure and responsibility on their voters to cast ballots on a single day, POLITICO says.
Early voting skepticism is already causing headaches for the Republican Party heading into the 2024 election cycle.
Republican leaders are urging their base to take a less skeptical stance on early and mail-in voting after the party suffered significant losses in the midterms through heavily relying on in-person voting on Election Day.
The GOP’s latest message on the matter marks a change in tone for the party, which was heavily influenced by former President Trump stoking skepticism about early and mail-in voting in 2020.
Trump’s message played a role in costing Republicans the Senate in Georgia in 2020 and also impacted their Senate loss in the state two years later.
But a lot of work is needed to be done to convince the Republican base to accept early voting practices.
According to a study from Pew Research conducted last year, 62 percent of Republicans said voters should only be allowed to vote early or absentee if they have a documented reason.
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