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In August, President Donald Trump vowed on social media to “lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS.”
In Pennsylvania, though, Republicans are sending voters a different message as they work to unseat three state Supreme Court justices this November, a historically difficult feat that will require turning out as many voters as they can.
“In 2024, we voted by mail and flipped Pennsylvania red,” a video ad from the Republican State Leadership Committee said, before urging voters to go to a website to request their mail ballots for the judicial retention election.
Republican voters in the commonwealth have been getting these kinds of clashing messages for years, said veteran GOP consultant Christopher Nicholas, noting that Trump’s conflicting statements mail voting in particular has meant “it has taken our base longer to integrate new voting options.”
But as state-level Republicans increasingly embrace mail voting, it appears voters are starting to as well.
For this November’s election, about 12,000 more Republican voters have requested mail ballots than did for 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 mail voting, Nicholas said, it has become less “scary” to them.
How the rhetoric on mail ballots shifted
It took the party a while to get to this point.
After the 2020 election, many Republicans cast doubt on the integrity of mail voting, and some legislators even tried to repeal the 2019 law that made it easier to vote by mail in Pennsylvania.
Republican voters shied away from it, too. For the six primary and fall elections from 2021 through 2023, Republicans made up only about 22% of all requests for mail ballots.
But the Republican rhetoric on mail ballots started to shift in Pennsylvania a few years ago.
After losing his 2022 bid for governor by roughly 15 percentage points, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Trump ally, said Republicans “have to embrace no-excuse mail-in voting,” and blamed his loss on their reluctance to do so.
Last April, in the lead-up to 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’re working a double shift, or family responsibilities prevent you from voting on Election Day, Joe Biden wins,” he says in the ad. “Pennsylvania, I need you to join the mail-in voting list today.”
Trump himself also encouraged mail voting at times last year.
And it seemed to have worked. In the 2024 presidential election, Republicans made up 32% of voters requesting mail ballots, a greater portion than ever before.
Still, Trump has persisted with his rhetoric against mail voting.
“ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,” he wrote in an Aug. 18 social media post. “I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.”
Jim Billman, chair of the Berks County GOP, said he agrees with the president’s recent statements and would like to see non-absentee mail voting eliminated, as he considers it too susceptible to fraud. But despite how he feels, he said Republicans still need to take advantage of the option in order to be competitive with Democrats.
“Even though we want to see this end someday, right now, it is the law of the land,” he said, so his advice to voters is “If you can’t get out to cast your ballot in person, cast a mail-in ballot.”
Infrequent voters are the target
When considering 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 “4y,” voter is one who votes every election, and can generally be counted on to cast a ballot.
But voters who rarely or never cast ballots, or only vote in the even-numbered years associated with bigger federal elections, are the ones parties hope might use mail ballots.
These are the “iffy votes” that Billman said he’s targeting for mail-in ballots. “You really have no excuse if your mail-in ballot comes to your house.”
The state Republican Party takes a similar line. James Markley, communications director for the Pennsylvania GOP, told Votebeat and Spotlight PA that while mail voting has its flaws, the party encourages voters to use any “legal means necessary” to cast their vote.
“If mail-in balloting is part of the process, and voters can’t make it to the polls on Election Day, then they should request a mail-in ballot and make sure their voices are heard,” he said.
The state GOP’s website gives three ways to cast a ballot, with the first two being versions of mail voting, and in-person voting listed third.
Scott Presler, a conservative activist who primarily focuses on turning out swing state voters for Trump, has also been pushing mail voting heavily on his social media pages, calling it an “emergency backup ballot” voters can use if they are unable to make it to the polls on Election Day.
Nicholas, the Republican consultant, said that for party officials, how GOP voters turn in their ballot is much less important than making sure they vote.
“Winning a campaign,” he said, “is preeminent.”
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
