(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Who could have predicted that GOP efforts to demonize early voting would suppress their own vote? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-07-12 In the annals of colossal screw-ups, the Republican Party’s hysterical war on early and mail-in voting probably ranks as one of the more consequential. Fed a litany of lies from Donald Trump and others in the GOP essentially demonizing these immensely popular measures, Republican voters were incessantly taught to ignore them and rely instead on in-person, election day voting to cast their ballots. Meanwhile, Republican-dominated state legislatures eagerly jumped on the bandwagon, parroting Trump’s lies about early voting and enacting restrictions and limitations on early voting, because that meshed nicely with their overall goal of suppressing Democratic voters. Non-existent voter fraud quickly became the routine excuse parroted as justification for legislation designed to limit such measures, because it was assumed that Democrats would benefit more from them. Republicans’ mindless distrust of anything remotely related to COVID safety precautions --such as reliance on mail-in ballots — also helped cement these unfounded suspicions in the minds of their own voters. Many Republicans now seem to have belatedly realized how dearly they paid for this manufactured Trumpian idiocy, both in 2020 and especially in 2022, as predictions of a “red wave” to offset already-cast Democratic votes failed to materialize. Even donors and party leaders still beholden to Donald Trump are now urging a complete about-face on their prior position and are encouraging their voters to vote early and by mail. But as reported by Josh Dawsey and Isaac Arnsdorf, writing for the Washington Post, as well as Neil Vigdor, reporting for the New York Times, convincing Republican voters that they should suddenly disregard years of disinformation about alternatives to in-person voting may prove to be an uphill battle. As Dawsey and Arnsdorf report: [A]fter disappointing election results in 2020 and 2022, Republicans close to Trump are seeking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to build programs that would encourage some of the practices that the former president and other Republicans once decried, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post and interviews with GOP operatives involved in the programs. The Post identified at least five major programs gestating from the still Trump-dominated GOP, all geared to encouraging both early voting and “ballot harvesting” (where legal) among the Republican faithful. Still, as the authors observe, “It is unclear how many Republican donors will give to such measures and whether many GOP voters who have been skeptical of mail-in voting will participate.” Perhaps dimly sensing the damage he did to his own re-election hopes by instilling this bizarre distrust of early and mail-in voting in the very people he expects to help him stay out of prison, Trump himself has begun to sing a different tune. As Vigdor, reporting for the Times article, notes: Even former President Donald J. Trump, whose lies and conspiracy theories about his 2020 election loss heightened the party’s distrust of mail voting, has been saying for months that Republicans have “no choice” but to embrace the method, at least until the party has the power to change voting laws. Still, as Vigdor reports, the awkwardness of meekly backtracking on their prior position has created a notable dissonance not only for Trump, but for those of his sycophant followers who in latched onto election denialism as their path to electoral success. As Kari Lake, in her seemingly never-ending quest for relevance, recently declared, “While you know how I feel about mail-in ballots, if this is the game we have to play, if we’ve got to work in their rigged system, we’ll work in their rigged system.” In other words, “we screwed up, big time.” But just because Trump, Lake and others are backpedaling on their formerly rock-solid convictions about early voting doesn’t mean others in the party are necessarily getting the message. As Vigdor notes, even Trump can’t seem to make up his mind on the issue, telling Georgia Republicans this month that mail-in balloting is inherently “dishonest.” Ultimately whether Republican voters respond to this glaring contradiction in their own party’s messaging may come down to whose social media feed they prefer. As Vigdor reports: “They are 100 percent wrong,” Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and Trump ally who has been a leading voice in pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, said in a text message. “Same-day voting!” And old habits die hard. As noted by Chris Carr, formerly an official with the Trump campaign, past GOP efforts to collect ballots in Nevada from GOP voters have met with a brick wall of distrust: “I know here in Nevada, when they have their canvassers knocking from door to door — would you like a volunteer of our organization to collect your ballot and deliver it to the election department? Republican voters overwhelmingly said, ‘No, I’m not going to give my ballot to a stranger,’” Carr said of his home state. Of course they won’t give their ballots to a stranger. They know the whole process is fraudulent, a Democratic scam. After all, Trump told them so. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/12/2180706/-Who-could-have-predicted-that-GOP-efforts-to-demonize-early-voting-would-suppress-their-own-vote Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/