The campaign of Donald Trump is making a last-minute push to support early voting and mail-in ballots, which the former president has falsely portrayed as dangerous and fraudulent for years.
With under a month to go in a tight race, Trump's mission is encouraging individuals to cast a ballot early and via mail, while likewise attempting to grow casting a ballot access in North Carolina after Storm Helene.
Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, who is also the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, have actively encouraged voters to use early voting options like mail-in ballots in a series of recent virtual town halls and robocalls that CNN reviewed.
One automated call states, "Hi, this is Lara Trump calling on behalf of President Trump's campaign, and we're urging you to get out and vote before Election Day." Lara Trump made a false claim in a robocall earlier this year that mail-in ballots would cause a lot of fraud in the 2020 election.
The Trump lobby taps Lara Trump to urge citizens to cast a ballot early and via mail
Recently, the RNC co-seat voiced a robocall dishonestly claiming enormous extortion happened in the 2020 political race because of mail voting forms.
According to data from the app Nomorobo, which blocks and tracks robocalls, at least 286,000 estimated robocalls with this recording were sent to voters, including in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan. On October 2, the calls started.
Even though Republicans in Georgia opposed an effort to expand voting access by extending registration deadlines following hurricane damage in that state, the Trump campaign asked North Carolina this past week to take steps to expand voting access in the wake of Hurricane Helene.
While advocates for voting rights are pleased that the Trump campaign has joined a bipartisan effort to expand access to voting, they point out that this goes against a long history of attempts to restrict voting in this election and in 2020, when the pandemic overturned voting nationwide.
According to Sean Morales-Doyle, the director of the Brennan Center for Justice's voting rights program, "It's great that the Trump campaign was speaking with the same voice as so many others and asking for expansions to voting access in the wake of Hurricane Helene." However, it inconveniences me that they don't adopt a kind of uniform strategy to that - or to mail casting a ballot or to early democratic."
In order to prevent many of the changes made by states to make it easier to vote by mail, the Trump campaign filed several lawsuits in 2020. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the modifications were implemented to reduce indoor gatherings.
"At the point when you see this back-peddling on casting a ballot, in addition to the fact that it raises the worry that these strategies depend on the governmental issues of who they think will profit from extended admittance … it likewise clarifies that they know they're not coming clean on how extended admittance from mail casting a ballot or early democratic add to a denigration of political decision honesty," Spirits Doyle added.
North Carolina is one of the key swing states that could choose the official political race, and the western piece of the state impacted most by the storm is a probably the most strong area for Trump.
In 2020, the former president won all but two of the 25 counties in North Carolina's federally declared disaster area with nearly 63% of the vote. As per the state's leading group of races, there are 481,000 enlisted conservatives in the 25 districts, contrasted and 293,000 liberals.
In a statement, Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said that the plans to make it easier to vote in North Carolina would "ensure the people who have already suffered from the storm don't lose their right to participate in this important election."
They stated, "Swift action from the Governor and the North Carolina General Assembly will ensure that the people of their state have their voices heard on November 5th."
As part of the Republican National Committee's get-out-the-vote program, "Too Big to Rig" Trump has previously posted videos and messages on his social media platforms advocating for early voting and mail-in voting. Trump's campaign rallies promote both voting methods.
However, the former president has occasionally issued contradictory messages as a result of that push.
Last month, at a meeting in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Trump derided early democratic, and advanced it, concurrently.
We must cast our ballots. And you can begin immediately. That is known to you, right? Presently we have this moronic stuff where you can cast a ballot 45 days ahead of schedule. What exactly transpires during that 45? See these votes? Let's move. There are approximately one million votes there. We should move them. We're fixing the room's air conditioner, right?' Trump responded, "No, it's terrible." Everything that took place the previous time was shameful, even here. However, we will not permit it to occur again. You know, too enormous to even consider fixing, correct? That is one approach.
In 2020, Trump referred to mail-in ballots as "corrupt" and "dangerous." He predicted that they would result in "massive electoral fraud" and a "rigged" election in 2020.
Even though the former president pledged to one day eliminate the commonly used practices, Trump's campaign is actively promoting early in-person and mail voting in a tight election against Vice President Kamala Harris. In a video that was uploaded in June to Swamp the Vote USA, a website that provides information about voting that is funded by the Republican National Committee, he made the false claim that they were unsecure voting methods.
"I will for the last time get our decisions. We will use ballots on paper. We will have same-day casting a ballot, citizen ID. We will carry it out correctly. We will have beautiful, safe, and good elections. We at no point ever need what occurred in 2020 to occur in the future," Trump expresses straightforwardly to the camera. " However, Republicans must win until then. Furthermore, we should utilize each proper device accessible to beat the liberals. … Whether you vote early, truant, via mail or face to face, we will safeguard the vote."
Despite having previously echoed her father-in-law's rhetoric regarding early voting, the Republican parties in Arizona and Nevada also hired Lara Trump to voice robocalls promoting mail-in and early voting.
On the Nevada robocall, Lara Trump declares, "We’re going to secure a massive victory with your help." Therefore, get out there, remind others of how important this election is, and encourage others to vote early. We prevail when we vote.
Lara Trump urges Nevadans to vote early and by mail The Nevada Republican Party appointed Lara Trump to promote early voting.
Source: Nomorobo
In April, CNN's KFile revealed Lara Trump conveyed a prearranged call to citizens' telephones saying liberals committed "monstrous misrepresentation" in the 2020 political decision.
We are all aware of the issues. The massive fraud that took place includes, among other things, voter rolls full of noncitizens and deceased people, unsecured ballot drop boxes, mass mailing of ballots, and no photo IDs. Your vote could be canceled by someone who isn't even a citizen of the United States if Democrats get their way.
"I will give the conservatives who are in control here credit for passing great regulation (Wednesday) that certainly will address requirements of citizens," said Weave Phillips, the leader head of Normal Reason North Carolina, a gathering that promoters for extended elector access. " The greatest thing is giving every one of these district leading body of decisions the adaptability concerning casting a ballot locales, both for early democratic and Final voting day."
Additionally, the Trump campaign proposed establishing bipartisan teams to assist voters in requesting and delivering absentee ballots to county boards, as well as allowing voters who had been relocated to other counties in the state to cast provisional ballots that would be returned to their home counties.
In Georgia, be that as it may, where Helene additionally caused critical harm, conservatives went against an endeavor to grow elector access. In a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups to extend the county's Monday deadline for voter registration, the Republican National Committee joined in as a defendant.
A federal judge rejected that motion on Thursday, stating that it "lacked clarity and detail" regarding the specific individuals' injuries.
A federal judge on Wednesday also dismissed a similar lawsuit in Florida over the voter registration deadline, which is still determining the damage caused by Hurricane Milton.
When voters in Georgia have had months to register to vote, an RNC spokesperson stated that liberal groups in Georgia were attempting to use the courts to extend registration deadlines enacted by the legislature.
Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, stated, "As many Americans are still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Helene, the Trump Campaign and RNC are fighting to expand voting access for those displaced" and "We are meeting voters where they are to ensure they are educated on voting changes."
Trump and his allies have argued that many of the changes that were made in 2020 by election boards during the pandemic are different from those that were approved by a legislature, as the campaign requested North Carolina to do.
Even though the circumstances of a pandemic and a hurricane are distinct, advocates for voting rights argue that allowing displaced voters to participate in an election should remain the same.
According to Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center, "Even when these disasters cause different obstacles, the policy solutions are frequently the same." Access is essential, and funding is essential for expanding access. In many ways, the issues we're fighting for now in North Carolina and Florida are similar to those we were fighting for in 2020.
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