Amid Trump crosstalk, Pennsylvania Republicans are encouraging mail-in voting

In August, President Donald Trump vowed on social media that he would “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN VOTES” and voting by mail.

In Pennsylvania, however, Republicans are sending voters a different message as they work to remove three Supreme Court justices in November, a historically difficult feat that requires as many voters as possible to turn out.

‘In 2024 we voted by mail and turned Pennsylvania red’ a video ad from the Republican State Leadership Committee before urging voters to go to a website to request their mail-in ballots for the judicial retention election.

Republican voters in the Commonwealth have been getting these kinds of conflicting messages for years, says veteran Republican consultant Christopher Nicholas, noting that Trump’s conflicting statements by mail in particular have meant that “it has taken our base longer to integrate new voting options.”

But as Republicans at the state level increasingly embrace mail-in voting, it appears voters are starting to do so, too. Let him vote reports.

About 12,000 more Republican voters have requested mail-in ballots for the November election than in the last municipal election in 2023, and there are still more than three weeks left to request a ballot.

As more of these voters use vote-by-mail, Nicholas said, it has become less “scary” for them.

How the rhetoric about mail-in ballots changed

It took a while for the party to get there.

After the 2020 election, many Republicans cast doubt on the integrity of mail-in voting, and some lawmakers even tried withdrawal the 2019 law that made it easier to vote by mail in Pennsylvania.

Republican voters also shunned it. For the six primaries and fall elections from 2021 through 2023, Republicans made up only about 22% of all requests for mail-in ballots.

But Republican rhetoric about mail-in ballots began to change in Pennsylvania a few years ago.

After losing his 2022 bid for governor by about 15 percentage points, Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Trump ally, said Republicans “must embrace no-excuse voting by mail”, and blames his loss on their unwillingness to do so.

Last April, ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, was featured in an ad encouraging Republicans in the state to vote by mail.

“If you work a double shift, or if family responsibilities keep you from voting on Election Day, Joe Biden wins,” he says. in the advertisement. “Pennsylvania, I want you to join the mail-in voting list today.”

Trump himself also encouraged voting by mail last year sometimes.

And it seemed to have worked. In the 2024 presidential election, Republicans made up 32% of voters requesting mail-in ballots, a larger share than ever before.

Yet Trump has persisted with his rhetoric against mail-in voting.

“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE FAIR WITH MAIL BALLOTS/VOTES, and everyone, ESPECIALLY Democrats, KNOWS THIS,” he wrote in an August 18 post on social media. “I AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING BACK FAIRNESS AND INTEGRITY TO OUR ELECTIONS.”

Jim Billman, chairman of the Berks County Republican Party, said he agrees with the president’s recent statements and would like to see absentee voting by mail eliminated because he believes it is too prone to fraud. But despite how he feels, he said Republicans still need to take advantage of this option to be competitive with Democrats.

“Even though we want to end this one day, right now it’s the law of the land,” he said, so his advice to voters is: “If you can’t get out and cast your vote in person, cast a ballot.”

Few voters are targeted

When assessing turnout, political parties and activists often think of voters in terms of how often they vote within a four-year election cycle. A “four-year” or “4-year” voter is someone who votes in every election, and can usually be counted on to cast a vote.

But voters who rarely or never vote, or only vote in the even years that accompany larger federal elections, are the ones the parties hope will be able to vote by mail.

These are the “questionable votes” Billman said he was targeting for mail-in ballots. “You really have no excuse if your ballot arrives at your home.”

The Republican Party is following a similar line. James Markley, communications director for the Pennsylvania Republican Party, told Votebeat and Spotlight PA that while voting by mail has its shortcomings, the party is encouraging voters to use whatever “legal means” necessary to cast their ballot.

“If mail-in voting is part of the process, and voters cannot get to the polls on Election Day, they should request a mail-in ballot and ensure their voice is heard,” he said.

The state GOP website offers three ways to vote, with the first two versions being vote-by-mail and in-person voting coming in third.

Scott Presler, a conservative activist focused on winning swing state voters to Trump, has also heavily pushed mail-in voting on his social media pages, calling it an “emergency backup ballot” that voters can use if they can’t get to the polls on Election Day.

Nicholas, the Republican consultant, said that for party officials, how Republican voters return their ballots is far less important than making sure they vote.

“Winning a campaign,” he said, “is of the utmost importance.”

This story was produced by Let him vote and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

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