This browser does not support the Video element.
Republicans push for early voting
National Republicans are encouraging early votes; what they call "Bank Your Vote," launching the statewide initiatives in Wisconsin – again showing just how powerful votes are in this battleground state.
MILWAUKEE - The national battle over your vote heats up in Wisconsin with 469 days until the crucial 2024 election. On Monday, July 24, the Republican National Committee chose Wisconsin as the state to launch their first statewide campaign of the national "Bank Your Vote" initiative.
"When you have a football game, you don’t wait until the fourth quarter to start scoring," said Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee chairwoman. "We can’t do that. We have to make sure we’re not allowing Democrats to get such a huge start during these early voting periods, that we have to make it all up on Election Day. It just doesn’t make sense."
It represents a strategy change for the national Republican Party.
In 2020, Former President Donald Trump raised unfounded worries about absentee ballots, and he did it again in a recent FOX News Town Hall with Sean Hannity.
Hannity: "Do you now encourage and embrace early voting, voting by mail, and legal ballot harvesting?"
"I do, but I also have to say something else because the one thing a lot of people…" said Trump, who was interrupted.
SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News
Hannity: "Will you encourage your voters, based on the system we have, to go along with the system of early voting and voting by mail?"
"I will," responded Trump.
Hannity: "I think if you don’t, it’s a big mistake."
"No, no, no. I will, but those ballots get lost, also, Sean," said Trump.
Back in 2020, the Trump campaign unsuccessfully fought in Wisconsin courts to have absentee ballots thrown out from Dane and Milwaukee counties. In a separate case, conservatives won a suit challenging absentee ballot drop boxes; the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Wisconsin law prohibits ballots from being dropped in unstaffed drop boxes.
Wisconsin Democrats accused Republicans of flip-flopping on early voting.
"They’ve lost elections, and so now, it looks like Republicans' attitudes towards early votes is if you can’t suppress them, join them," said Ben Wikler, chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. "Unfortunately, the Republican Party has been telling their activists for years now that early ballots are somehow illegitimate, and so I think the Republican Party is now going to have to kind of face the music."
"Part of what we all know is we no longer have an Election Day; we have an election season, "said McDaniel. "And we need to start now to start educating our voters and engaging them on the importance of not allowing Democrats to get a huge start in banking votes, long before Election Day."
Republicans' first-in-the-country statewide push for early voting targets Wisconsin, where the last two presidential races have been decided by roughly 20,000 votes, which is less than 1%
"Now, if you’re a Republican, and you’ve lost some statewide elections by, let’s say 20- to 30,000 votes, you go, ‘How could we do this? How could we be discouraging people from not voting early?’ So it seems to me, now they’ve come to their senses, and they want to win elections, and the way to win elections is to get as many people as possible of your supporters to vote," said Mordecai Lee, UW-Milwaukee professor emeritus.
The RNC chairwoman estimates about 25% of Republicans, on average, vote early. She says the goal over the next year is to get that number higher.
She says the party tested a concentrated effort to promote early voting in one part of the state in 2022 and it worked well. Likewise, both Wisconsin candidates for U.S. Senate in 2022, the Republican and Democrat, urged early votes.
"It’s one of the reasons why I decided to come out here to early vote to make sure that people have trust and faith in the process," said Mandela Barnes in 2022 as the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee. "We’re going to make sure that all the ballots are counted, make sure that this is a safe and secure process. I trust the process."
"If you’ve already voted, we don’t need to spend any time contacting you and bugging you, quite honestly. So, if you go vote early, we’ll know that, and we can turn our attention to Republicans who maybe you have to coax to the polls," said Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson during the 2022 general election campaign.
Despite the differences between Republicans and Democrats, there is one thing they can agree: Wisconsin could help determine who wins the White House and Congress in 2024.
"It’s clear that the Republican Party believes that they absolutely have to win Wisconsin, more than any other state if they want to retake the White House and the Senate majority," said Wikler. "This is going to be the hardest fought state in the country, and it could tip the balance of power in the election, in the presidential, U.S. House and the U.S. Senate."
Before then, the RNC will host the first presidential debate in Milwaukee on August 23, 2023, which will be broadcast on FOX News. A big, unanswered question is whether the former president will attend.
"It would be good for everybody in the country to see every candidate running for president, seeking the Republican nomination," McDaniel told reporters on a phone call. "My guess is knowing President Trump, he’s going to keep us guessing until the very end."