WASHINGTON — Donald Trump and his 2024 presidential campaign team are now fans of voting by mail — not to mention all the claims and lawsuits they’ve supported in the past to restrict or end the practice.
Mail-in voting, a key factor in Trump’s defeat during the 2020 election in the midst of a deadly global pandemic, is part of a new Republican plan to promote early voting weeks before Election Day, even after years of Trump’s attacks on the idea and attempts to reverse it.
“We will use all appropriate tools,” Trump said in a tone-shifting statement earlier this week, announcing a new program called “Swamp The Vote USA.”
Said Trump: “Whether you vote absentee, by mail, in person or on Election Day (Nov. 5), we will protect the vote.”
Democrats, including advisers to President Joe Biden, were quick to point out that Trump and his team have filed a series of lawsuits — some still pending — to restrict mail-in voting and other programs designed to make voting easier.
“They are trying to turn out eligible voters and intimidate those who sit out the vote,” said Biden campaign spokesman James Singer. “Trump thinks mail-in ballots are ‘totally corrupt’ and last September proposed eliminating mail-in voting altogether.”
‘A lot of people cheat’
“Swamp The Vote” is the nicest thing Trump has said about early voting in years.
In April 2020, as some states expanded the use of mail-in ballots because COVID lockdowns made it more difficult to vote in person, Trump told reporters, “I think a lot of people cheat with mail-in voting.”
Trump and his team discouraged Republicans from voting by mail and other forms of early voting, with predictable results: Democrats gained huge leads in early voting and won crucial states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
During a May 11 rally in Wildwood, NJ, Trump encouraged voters to vote by mail if they wanted, but also said, “You know that voting by mail is largely corrupt.”
Singer, from the Biden campaign, said: “Trump spent years saying that early and mail-in voting was ‘fraudulent,’ ‘cheating,’ and ‘crooked.’ Apparently his campaign thinks otherwise. Trump should own up to the lies about voting and elections that he has been telling for years and admit the truth: voting is safe, fair and effective.”
All these processes
Over the years, Republican organizations filed lawsuits in key battleground states seeking to halt a number of early voting procedures, especially mail-in voting. Most failed.
The cases still pending are in various stages of litigation in hotly contested states such as Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Trump forces are trying to disqualify ballots received in the mail after Election Day without a postmark. They also want to eliminate mail-in ballots that are not completed as property or have alleged signature verification issues.
This week, when the party announced its “Swamp The Vote” program, the RNC presented a third lawsuit in Nevada on electoral procedures. This aims to prevent the counting of votes without a postmark.
RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said “counting votes received after Election Day without a postmark creates a concerning and potentially fraudulent impact on Nevada’s elections.”
Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University who specializes in elections, said the various lawsuits are not aimed at ending voting by mail; instead, the Republican Party wants to scale back by making it easier to disqualify certain ballots.
It can be counterproductive, Levitt said: Rules that count more votes often benefit infrequent voters, a group Trump is trying to appeal to.
The more Trump attacks mail-in voting, he said, “the more likely he is to be hurting his own supporters.”
‘It’s extremely important’
During the 2020 campaign, Trump frequently discouraged Republicans from voting by mail, a decision that may have cost him the election. Biden racked up huge margins over Trump in mail-in ballots and early voting in general.
Republicans in Pennsylvania said mail-in voting made a difference in a number of elections, including the 2020 Biden-Trump race and the 2022 Senate race, won by Democrat John Fetterman over Trump-backed Republican Mehmet Oz .
“It’s not just extremely important to Trump,” said Tom Eddy, chairman of the Erie County (Pa.) Republican Committee. “It’s extremely important for all Republican candidates.”
How committed Trump is to voting by mail is an open question.
During a Thursday event in Phoenix, Trump discussed the “Swamp The Vote” program as an important part of overcoming any Democratic advantages in voting by mail.
Urging supporters to contact the program’s website, Trump said: “That’s where you go to get information to request your ballot or commit to voting early, in person or even on Election Day.”
He did not use the word “mail”.
This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: Trump’s U-turn on Mail-In Voting: How It Influences Republican Party Strategy
