Encouraging absentee voting, Hypocrites all the way down...

Republicans quietly push mail-in voting despite Trump claims

Even Trump’s own campaign is encouraging absentee voting, which the president claims is different.

By ANITA KUMAR

President Donald Trump may rail against mail-in ballots in public, but state and local Republicans are quietly telling Americans that’s exactly how they should vote.

In Iowa, the Republican Party mailed absentee ballot applications to voters without waiting for requests. In Pennsylvania, the GOP’s website promotes voting by mail: "Vote Safe: By mail. From home.” And in Ohio, the Republican Party sent mailers with Trump’s photo saying “Join President Trump and Vote by Absentee Ballot.”

Tens of millions of Americans will cast their ballot for president by mail this year — many in Republican-dominated states and swing states where Republican turnout is crucial for Trump — as the coronavirus outbreak keeps Americans at home. And it won’t be the first time. More than 33 million Americans — nearly one in four — voted by mail in Trump’s first successful election in 2016.

“Vote by mail really works well here in Utah,” said Justin Lee, director of elections in Utah, where the Republican administration sends ballots to every voter in the state. “We do feel it’s safe and secure. We don’t feel there are any real instances of either widespread fraud or voter disenfranchisement.”

Many Republicans are outwardly careful not to address Trump's remarks, but privately they worry his escalating accusations of fraud could scare reliable supporters from voting remotely. New polling has fueled these concerns and Democrats are outpacing Republican requests for absentee ballots in some swing states.

Trump frequently attempts to distinguish between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, saying the latter has additional safeguards and go only to those who request them (election officials say the ballots look identical). He requested an absentee ballot himself to vote in this week's Florida primary, and his own campaign has been targeting counties in battleground states where absentee ballots made a difference in 2016, urging supporters through a website to request ballots and running Facebook ads that state "Absentee ballots are GOOD. I need you to get your application and send in your absentee ballot IMMEDIATELY."

But across the country, the distinction between mail-in ballots and absentee ballots appears negligible.

Some states use the words interchangeably or use a single term for all mail-in ballots. In Florida voters can request a mail-in ballot without providing a reason, but in Texas, voters must list a reason for remote voting. Yet in both states, all remote ballots are referred to as “mail-in ballots.” Over in Vermont, ballots are sent to everyone, while in Wisconsin, only ballot applications are sent to everyone. Still, all mail-in voting in both states is nonetheless called “absentee ballots.”

“The president is making a false distinction and no, there are not more safeguards with absentee ballots,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, the deputy director of voting rights, elections and democracy at the Brennan Center for Justice. “The safeguards available and in use to protect the integrity of elections are the same in either system.”

Trump’s full-fledged assault on voting by mail began in the spring when he started talking about massive fraud with little evidence. In recent weeks, he has expanded his criticism to USPS, which he says can’t handle the millions of extra ballots expected this year.

Democrats are sounding the alarm, accusing Trump of trying to undermine confidence in the election while curbing mail-in voting because of sinking poll numbers against Joe Biden.

The House will return Saturday to vote to give USPS an additional $25 billion and to ask Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a longtime Republican donor, about accusations he is trying to prevent mail-in voting by cutting employee hours and removing sorting machines. Trump initially threatened to withhold money from the post office in an effort to stymie mail-in voting. But in recent days, he said he would agree to $10 billion of the request, perhaps more. DeJoy has also pledged to pause planned changes to the Postal Service until after the election.

“Democrats denied a $10 billion offer for the U.S. Postal Service by this president before they went on recess,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Wednesday. “But now they’re back to pursue the latest Democrat-manufactured crisis. It’s sad, but it’s clear where Democrats’ priorities stand.”

More than two dozen states, run by both Democrats and Republicans, have already made voting changes to facilitate mail-in voting ahead of November’s election. In the past, researchers have found universal mail-in voting doesn’t privilege Republicans or Democrats, and election officials say it’s unclear whether either party might benefit in 2020. Yet some Republicans said Democrats have traditionally been more proficient at enrolling their supporters for absentee voting — and they’re trying to change that fact this year.

“Democrats did a much better job than us to get voters to use absentee ballots,” said Dave Millage, chairman of the Scott County Republican Party in Iowa. Millage said he is pushing voters this year to vote absentee in nightly meetings and on social media. But, he added, the state’s decision to send out applications has caused some confusion among voters, with some wondering why they received an application and others telling him they don’t trust the Postal Service.

In 2020, four states — California, Vermont, New Jersey, Nevada — and Washington, D.C., plan to send ballots to all registered voters. Seven others, including Arizona, Wisconsin and Iowa, will send ballot applications. Some states will allow coronavirus as a reason to vote by mail, though voters in most other states can request a mail-in ballot without providing a reason.

Even before the pandemic, five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — conducted elections entirely by mail with few problems.

Terry Lathan, chairman of the Republican Party in Alabama, plans to urge absentee voting ahead of November, even more than she usually does. Her state added coronavirus to the reasons voters can request an absentee ballot this year. But Lathan said she agreed with Trump that universal mail-in voting creates security risks, likening it to” throwing ballots out the window of an airplane and letting everyone grab one.”

While Trump has mostly criticized Democratic states for their voting policies, states with Republican governors and election officials have also expanded vote-by-mail programs.

Two weeks ago, during a visit to the White House, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona pushed back when Trump suggested mail-in voting was riddled with fraud.

“In Arizona, we’re going to do it right,” Ducey said. “It will be free and fair. It will be difficult, if not impossible, to cheat. And it will be easy to vote.”

Nearly 80 percent of voters in Arizona generally cast ballots through the mail. This year, the state will mail applications to all voters.

Trump responded by switching the conversation to Nevada, led by a Democratic governor.

Experts say states scrutinize remote ballots before they are counted.

“Each state has a process for verifying the voter’s eligibility and registration status, for matching the signature on the ballot’s envelope to the voter’s signature on file, verifying any identification requirement in state law,” said Ned Foley, director of election law at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University. “No envelope can be opened and no ballot inside removed to be counted unless these eligibility-verification steps are complete. That would be true for all mailed ballots.”

Critics say the potential problems with mail-in voting are varied. Voters may have their ballot tossed out for not following directions, for not having a proper signature or for having a name that doesn’t exactly match the information on file. Separately, they say, the voting rolls that determine who receives a ballot could be inaccurate, or ballots could be sent to the wrong address or lost in the mail.

But supporters of mail-in voting say these concerns can be addressed through funding, tweaks to the rules and voter education. In Utah, officials said sending ballots to voters has helped the state clean up its voter rolls because if a ballot is returned, the state can then take that person off the list.

“We feel very good about the ballots getting to the right people,” Lee said.

Still, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have already taken to the courts dozens of times as part of a $20 million effort to challenge voting rules, including filing their own lawsuits in several battleground states, including Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Trump aides and outside advisers have also pondered possible executive actions he could take to curb mail-in voting. But Trump’s options are severely limited by the Constitution, which gave states the authority to oversee elections.

“IF YOU CAN PROTEST IN PERSON, YOU CAN VOTE IN PERSON!” Trump tweeted Wednesday. Despite the focus on in-person voting, a White House official said the president still supports “safe in-person voting and absentee ballots.”

Trump has noted that Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said there is “no reason” Americans can’t vote in person as long as they follow social-distancing guidelines.

Still, there could be problems. Election officials are worried about long lines and a shortage of workers at in-person polling stations during the pandemic.

Some local and state officials say older voters or those who live in more rural areas — who tend to vote Republican — prefer voting by mail, which means they don’t have to worry about replacing as many voting machines or finding as many poll workers.

Critics argue that states that want to switch to voting by mail need years to build up the infrastructure necessary to handle both the outgoing and incoming ballots.

“To successfully implement it the way it should be implemented takes a five-year period,” said Alabama's Republican Secretary of State John Merrill. ”Not five months, five years.”