The Republican Party and its presidential nominee Donald Trump are sending mixed messages to voters on early voting.
On one hand, they are embracing early voting in states where they don’t have a choice, whereas in other places, they are railing against it.
Such was the case recently when, according to a report in The New York Times, a banner that read “Vote Early” was hung above Trump supporters at a rally in Wisconsin while the message being spewed on stage was quite different.
Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt stood on the stage, The Times reports, and said:
“Mr. President, I have something very important I think you’re going to want to hear. In Dodge County, in this 2024 election, there are zero drop boxes for the election.”
Trump responded to that by putting his arms up and giving two thumbs up, causing the crowd to go wild.
It’s an odd back-and-forth that Trump and the GOP has to play.
Some states use drop boxes so people can put their mail-in and/or early-voting ballots in a box that’s conveniently placed near where they live. This is an alternative to having to go to a courthouse, Post Office or rely on the Postal Service at all.
In states like Wisconsin, though, drop boxes have been a target of criticism from many Republicans. Drop boxes were banned in the state, but the Supreme Court ruled against that and re-allowed them.
Still, Schmidt has encouraged the various clerks in his county to not use the drop boxes. Eric Hovde, who is running for a seat on the U.S. Senate, has even suggested that people could use the drop boxes to put fake ballots into.
A Republican mayor of the town of Wausau removed one that was in from of City Hall recently, and that caused people to protest and a state investigation to begin.
At the same time, Republicans are striking a different tone on early voting. As Times’ reporter Jess Bidgood wrote:
“The moment onstage struck me as a perfect encapsulation of a curious 2024 dynamic: Republicans are urging their supporters to vote early, well aware that Democrats’ success encouraging early voting has helped them bank votes ahead of Election Day. But, key figures in the party keep denigrating or limiting voters’ options for doing that.”
Bidgood wrote that she spoke to her colleague, reporter Nick Corasaniti, who specializes in covering democracy and voting for The Times. He said:
“Both Trump and the R.N.C. are sending conflicting messages. Trump has been part of formal get-out-the-vote efforts, like a call he held with supporters in Maine … to motivate them on the first day of early voting in that state. But he also frequently … suggests that early voting is somehow corrupt.
“When it comes to the R.N.C., there is also a contradiction. It is encouraging people to vote early, which is something any campaign operative would want. But it is also joining a lot of lawsuits aiming to make mail voting harder.”
