FILE - Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel speaks to a packed room at the opening of the RNC's new Hispanic Community Center in Suwanee, Ga., June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)
In a change of course, national and state Republican leaders promote mail-in ballots
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Ben Wasserstein/WITF
FILE - Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel speaks to a packed room at the opening of the RNC's new Hispanic Community Center in Suwanee, Ga., June 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Ben Gray, File)
Republicans are changing their stance on mail-in ballots and early voting.
After years of peddling false claims of fraud regarding the use of mail-in ballots and early voting, the Republican National Committee is pushing the state’s “Bank Your Vote” initiative to get Republicans to vote as early as possible – including through mail.
The announcement comes ahead of the 2023 election in which Republicans will be vying for a seat on the state Supreme Court, and after the 2020 and 2022 election victories by Democratic President Joe Biden and Sen. John Fetterman.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel joined a call Tuesday with Republican U.S. Senate candidate David McCormick, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Pa. GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas to promote the program.
“I honestly can’t think of a state where this is more important than Pennsylvania where we are trying to leverage the full infrastructure of the Republican Party to educate and activate our voters to take advantage of early vote in person or voting by mail,” she said.
McDaniel, who was selected by Trump to lead the committee in 2016, said the RNC has always been in favor of mail-in ballots. However, that’s contradicted by the RNC’s actions and McDaniels’ own words.
In 2020, McDaniel wrote on foxnews.com that expansion of mail-in balloting “would vastly expand opportunities for fraud and weaken confidence in our elections.”
Former President Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud included attacking mail-in voting, and saying on “Fox and Friends” that the Democrats vote by-mail proposals would prevent a Republican from ever being elected again.
At the 2020 RNC Convention in Charlotte, Trump incorrectly claimed there were 80 million mail ballots going to people who didn’t ask for them.
On Sep. 7, 2020, he falsely said the ballots would lead to fraud and ballot harvesting, which is a practice that occurs when individuals collect voters’ completed ballots and return them on their behalf.
But Tabas said those views are in the past and they will be actively encouraging mail-in ballots.
“This is a 2023-2024 strategy that’s going to go on in the future and will result in big victories for Republicans in Pennsylvania,” he said.
Tabas did not answer why the GOP, which has vilified mail-in ballots, is now embracing them.
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