After years baselessly complaining about what Donald Trump claimed was the outrage of fraudulent mail-in ballots, the former president is now urging his supporters to use ... mail-in ballots.
Trump last month posted a video and written message declaring that "absentee voting" — meaning mail-in ballots — as well as "early voting and Election Day voting are all good options."
In January he warned his followers after the Iowa caucuses: "We have to get rid of mail-in ballots because once you have mail-in ballots, you have crooked elections."
The dramatic Trump turnaround (though he sometimes still attacks the voting method at rallies) was a long time coming even as Republican leaders repeatedly warned that dissuading supporters from using mail-in ballots meant that votes would be forever lost.
GOP strategists view mail-in ballots as a way to "bank" unreliable votes before Election Day, noted the Associated Press, which examined the evolving change in perspective on the voting method.
Mail-in votes also reduce the risk of plummeting turnout because of unpredictable developments such as inclement weather — as well as the impact on in-person voting due to time demands, infirmity and disability.
"We have to get right on using these mail-in ballots for the people who can't get there on Election Day," Trump supporter Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry said at a recent conservative gathering.
Some 69% of voters nationwide cast their ballot either by mail or voted early in the 2020 election. That was the highest rate of nontraditional voting ever in a presidential election, according to the Census, CBS News noted.
Members of both parties once used mail-in ballots at approximately the same rates, according to AP. But that changed thanks to Trump, who has long railed against mail-in ballots, claiming without evidence that their manipulation helped lose him the 2020 election. Covid also played a role as many Republicans avoided polling station because of fear of contagion — and wouldn't consider mail-in ballots.
Now Republicans suddenly have no problem with mail-in votes. Trump-backing group Turning Point Action is launching a $100 million campaign to reach voters in the swing states of Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin., which will include strong pitches for mail voting, AP reported.
There's now a "lot of buy-in to vote by any method available, and the vote-by-mail bogeyman is beginning to fade," Bill Bretz, chairman of Pennsylvania's Westmoreland County Republican Party, told AP.
Not all is forgiven, however.
The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit early this month seeking to block the counting of mail-in ballots after Election Day in Nevada.
