Republicans pushing to embrace mail-in voting encounter widespread resistance

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

April 2, 2024, 2:00 PM EDT


When Donald Trump held a rally last year in Erie County, an important area in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the top Republican official there went one by one to the 11,000 people waiting in line to ask one question: Would you like to vote by mail?

It did not go well. “I tried to give them a mail-in ballot application, and could only get out about 300,” Tom Eddy, head of the county’s Republican Party, said. “Every one of them said either, ‘No, that’s not the right way to vote,’ or ‘Trump does not agree with it.’”

What happened in Erie County is emblematic of the ongoing feud within the GOP over one of the most fundamental elements of elections: how to vote. And it reflects a strain at a critical time for the party, when national and battleground polling has shown the 2024 presidential election could be won at the margins.

National Republicans are attempting a shift to embrace mail-in and early voting to match what’s been a Democratic advantage in recent years. But interviews with nearly 20 Republican officials and voters across the country say there is lingering, and sometimes fierce, resistance to the idea — from Trump on down. The schism signals potential peril for the party in the fall if it once again fails to match Democrats’ on-the-ground ballot organization.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/republicans-trump-mail-voting-resistance-rnc-rcna145599

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I received my (no-excuse absentee) mail ballot for PA's April 23rd primary in the mail yesterday. Will try to get it in the mail this week.

[Novara]

1. It's a beautiful thing when they destroy their own selves.

[hlthe2b]

2. I can scarcely think of anything more nauseating than to be told: "no, Trump doesn't agree with that" (about anything)

These people are just depressing, pathetic, and nauseating to me. Yes, I should be more hopeful that they might shake themselves out of this stupor, but that is equivalent to looking at the aftermath of Jim Jones's 'Guayana' compound Kool-aid event and believing there would be many who survive to tell the tale (and learn from it).

[magicarpet]

3. Listen to trDUMP,... he is the smartest man in the room.

Hell,... trDUMP is the smartest man on the planet.

What a total fool.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Ah, they made that bed, and now they can lie in it! nt

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

5. It is pretty pathetic when Trump supporters cannot even make a personal decision

like how to vote without wondering what their cult leader would think of it. But if it works out in favor of Democratic candidates, that’s fine by me.

[flashman13]

6. President Biden's greatest ally in this election is the Rs own stupidity, incompetence, and general disorganization.

[dutch777]

7. There you go! We should secretly take out ads that say "No self respecting Republican votes by mail"!

[mwb970]

8. It's not going well for the trump cult.

`How wonderful!

[peggysue2]

9. Republicans poisoned the well on early/absentee voting

In earlier days it was their secret sauce. By banking votes early, Republicans had a clear advantage on Election Day turnout knowing where to concentrate their GOTV efforts and making Election-Day bad weather a non-factor.

Trump and MAGA-cultists, of course, screwed the effort with constant lying and claims of fraud. In doing so, they left the field wide-open for Dems to rush in and create their own secret sauce.

Which has been working quite nicely, thank you very much.

ETTD!

[Mz Pip]

10. Their loss

About 50 of California voters vote by mail. I love it. I can spread out on my dining room table with my 1/2 thick voters guide and 6 page ballot and take my time.

[durablend]

11. AI Trump needs to tell them to jump off a bridge

To see how many listen

[calimary]

14. Now THERE'S an idea...

I wonder how many of his lemmings would actually go do it - because their "god-emperor" told them to?

[Marcuse]

12. The intelligence quotient of half of all Americans is below the median.

[rickford66]

13. The Union soldiers voted by mail during the Civil War.

The vast majority were Republicans.

[TeamProg]

15. Can anyone name a larger collective of idiots? Sure, the KKK, but when it comes to per capita?

[Old Crank]

16. Wasn't there some biblical saying

About sowing and reaping????

[Dulcinea]

17. "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

--Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte

[Rebl2]

18. I think

KS has had mail in ballot for a while and now I think republicans are trying to do away with it.