Posted on 10/22/2024 4:23:01 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Republicans have spent months and millions of dollars on an effort to push former President Donald J. Trump’s most loyal supporters to change their minds about voting early.
There is some evidence to suggest it’s working.
With polls opening on Tuesday in Wisconsin, some form of early voting has commenced in all seven of the swing states. As of Monday, 17 million people nationwide had already cast a vote — and there are initial indications that Republicans are showing up to the polls or returning absentee ballots with more gusto than in recent years. In many cases, Republican officials and canvassers on the ground are spurring their voters on with the same debunked conspiracy theories about fraud that Mr. Trump has used to sow doubt about the integrity of the count.
“They have done a better job of turning out their voters to vote early,” said Sam Almy, a Democratic political strategist who tracks early ballots in Arizona. “I think they realized that early voting is easy and convenient: It turns out your voters quickly, and they don’t have to gamble on turning out all their voters on Election Day.”
It’s a remarkable turnabout from four years ago, when Mr. Trump had thoroughly demonized every method of voting that didn’t occur in person on Election Day. As states expanded access to mail and absentee voting at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Trump repeatedly discouraged his voters from taking advantage. He said mail ballots created “chaos and confusion,” and asserted without evidence that it would lead to “election interference by foreign countries.” Many of his supporters believed him, and Joseph R. Biden Jr. won, buoyed by Democratic dominance in early and mail votes.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I voted two weeks ago.
Early voting is a mixed bag of unintended consequences.
It tips the democraps off to how many votes they need to cheat to steal the election.
It can also demoralize the democraps as they see massive (R) votes so they do not go to vote.
It can also signal (R) voters not to go vote because we are winning.
It can also motivate (R) voters to go vote because they want to be part of the big win.
So, really, just go vote, in person, never by mail, and do it when you want to. No telling what affect it may have.
Wife and I voted last night in Parker, Florida (Panama City). One voter was there. Got right in and out. Easy peasy.
reports without evidence
I didnt want to take a chance of running out a paper, ink, or machines breaking down.
We voted day 1 , 1 hr wait
Last 20 yrs never waited at all!
I’d much prefer election day to be one day, but instead we have election month, leaving lots of time for chicanery.
I heard voter in Arizona say she voted early, because Trump told her to.
Trump is NOT giving *mixed messages*.
He’s been saying the same thing all along.
NYSlimes......
I took all three of my kids in the booth with me and showed them how to pull the lever.
Don’t remember if I let them each do one or not, but I probably did. That’s how I would do it now so that’s probably how I did it then, too.
A couple times I was the first in line at the polls and loved being asked to do the ritual of having the worker open the doors and so forth on the tabulator and certify that the machine was empty. Now, when in Rome, I’ll do what the Romans do. I dropped my ballot and my son’s at the county elections office today.
I think we may see a return to day-of voting of the democrats perceive that the republicans can gain an advantage under the present structures. Since all they care about is power, if early and mail
Voting ceases to serve their interests, they’ll drop it like a hot brick
Interesting observation. Hadn’t thought of that.
Interesting theory. That would stick it to the RATs using their own devious scheme. The law of unintended consequences. 😁😄😁
This was day one of early voting in my state.
Our enemies are ruthless, determined, cunning, and relentless. But, as a group, they’re also dumb as posts. They never think of the second magnitude consequences. The most dramatic recent example was eliminating the filibuster for judicial nominees by Harry Reid
Exactly - we’re slow learners, but when we figure it out, watch out
Once we vote, we can’t be sure WHAT’S going to happen to our votes.
>> Despite Trump’s Mixed Messages
Seriously. Even when they’re simply reporting on factual information, they can’t resist slipping in some sort of dig at President Trump.
Yes. The RATs seem to never think beyond the here-and-now. Not even one step. Reid and the filibuster is a great example, and his actions bit them in the butt later on.
At least with us, sometimes we think that making a new rule or law to help us now would be a good idea. Then we go to the next step and think, “Oh they could use that against us sometime.” And we don’t do it.
They operate in a knee-jerk manner.
Well, it is the NYT after all. Debunked by who? The NYT editorial board, perhaps?
🙄
“Early voting is a mixed bag of unintended consequences.”
But if a sizable majority of Republicans wait until election day to vote, then the Democratic controlled government only needs to foment power outages, riots, and other chicanery, to prevent the last votes from being counted, then declare victory.
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