Scott R. Presler: Republicans, It’s Time To Get Our Act Together On Early And Mail-In Voting

In the months that followed, experts with crystal balls declared emphatically, “The red wave is coming!” A perfect storm was already brewing. The party in power historically performs well during midterm elections. President Joe Biden’s approval rating was underwater, and working-class families were suffering from the highest inflation rate in more than 40 years. The Republicans lost a seat in Pennsylvania and won a narrow majority at the House. 

What caused the alleged red tsunami to become a scarlet trickle of voters? Simply put, the Republican Party failed adopt a national early- and mail in voting strategy. Kari Lake could have been elected governor today if Republicans used in-person early voting and postal voting in Arizona like they did in Florida.

Election integrity has been a major concern of voters since 2020. Although the consensus was that Republicans should vote in person on Election Day in 2020, it backfired in 2022. 30 percent Maricopa County polling places reported problems with the machines. Conservative voters who waited until the very last minute to cast their ballots were disenfranchised by the confusion. Lake was ultimately defeated by 17,000 votes. If Republicans had voted earlier, they wouldn’t have faced these problems and would have been able get more Republicans to vote. And, most importantly, they would have won.

Nevada’s Republican senatorial candidate Adam Laxalt was defeated by just 8,000 votes. Despite the fact that the state has 654,145 registered Republicans, Laxalt received just 490,388 votes. If we assume that not a single independent vote was cast for Laxalt, this means that 163,757 registered Republicans were not mobilized to vote for their party’s candidate. When every registered Republican in Nevada had a ballot in their mailbox 20 days before the election, and ballot harvesting is entirely legal under state law, there is no excuse for not achieving near-record Republican turnout — especially in a state that was forecasting snow and inclement weather on Election Day.

Republican officials did not make use of every electoral tool to their advantage and Republican voters suffered.

They are not getting the point. All of the post-mortems which cite candidate quality for Pennsylvania’s loss, miss the point. Mehmet Oz, Republican senatorial nominee, had already debated with his opponent. more than 500,000 Pennsylvanians had already sent in their absentee or mail-in ballots. Of those ballots, 407,062 were returned to registered Democrats while 107,086 to Republicans. It didn’t matter that Oz received more votes on Election Day because Democrats were locking in votes and chasing ballots 50 days prior. 

With 50 days of early voting available, it is not surprising that more than 1,000,000 registered Republicans did not vote by Election Day. Voters, activists and politicians should be angry at these failures and pledge to not waste another day for early voting.

Republican voters should vote early so that campaign cash can be spent on a decreasing number of voters each day as the election approaches. It is the most economical way to spend campaign cash for the party that claims to respect the laws of economics. More dollars per voter equals more dollars!

Republicans need our dedicated voters voting early, and then they need activists and leaders working to utilize every day as an opportunity to drive turnout — if Republicans refocus their campaigns into logistical machines, they are never going to lose an election again.

This problem — this fixable, albeit tediously difficult problem — is the genesis of the creation of Early Vote Action PAC. EVA will mobilize and organize, without the intrusive politics plaguing D.C. swamp and the RNC, and help ensure that every right-leaning American is registered and excited to vote by mail and in person. This goal will be met by Early Vote Action PAC, which will ensure that 2024 is a year full of Republican victories.

Early Vote Action PAC focuses on helping Republicans win in Arizona and North Carolina in 2024. If Republicans can win these states, they will have the necessary 270 electoral votes to take back the White House, the Senate, and a southern governor’s mansion. House seats will be flipped, then state house and state senate seats will be flipped, then local seats will be flipped — in an ode to the Gipper, we will call it “Trickle-Down Organizing.”

Last but not least, Early Vote Action will be opening a shop across the country to find enthusiastic, committed Republican activists who can drive turnout to key states. This will allow underutilized Republican voters, both in deep-red and deep-blue, to take part in flipping swing state by letter writing, phone banking and any other means necessary to make sure that the vote is cast by Election Day.

It’s time for the Republican Party back to its organizing roots. Only early Republican mobilization is what we need to focus on. It’s time to stop losing to Democrats.

Scott R. Presler is a leading grassroots activist in the Republican Party. His efforts range from registration drives to get out-the-vote programmes. They have made it possible for Republicans to succeed all over the country. To learn more about Scott’s latest project to bolster Republicans around the county, visit earlyvoteaction.com or email [email protected].