The shift in technique comes as his advisers acknowledge Democrats have been successful, partially, due to early voting.
Former President Donald Trump has constantly pushed lies about early voting being untrustworthy and rife with fraud. However as he gears up for his third presidential race in as many election cycles, his marketing campaign aides are shifting towards selling mail-in voting as a important a part of his election technique.
According to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, Trump’s marketing campaign now believes that such a shift is important, noting that Democrats used mail-in voting to assist them win in 2020 and stave off losses in 2022. The marketing campaign plans on encouraging Trump’s supporters to make the most of the observe this election cycle.
In the course of the 2020 election, Trump derided absentee voting as fraudulent, wrongly telling his supporters in marketing campaign speeches that the tactic couldn’t be trusted.
Election specialists had warned within the run-up to the election that it would appear that Trump was winning by a landslide as early outcomes got here in, however that the race would develop into a lot tighter as absentee ballots have been counted. However after the race quickly shifted in favor of Biden when mail-in ballots have been counted on Election Day, Trump and his loyalists insisted, with out proof, that the system was “rigged.”
In one tweet from December 2020, Trump described mail-in ballots as “corrupt,” claiming our elections system is similar to a “third world nation” on account of their use. In a tweet later that month, Trump claimed — regardless of proof on the contrary — that it was “irrefutable” that mail-in ballots unjustly caused him to lose the election.
It’s extremely troublesome for mail-in ballots to be manipulated, and elections experts consider them and other forms of early voting to be secure.
Trump’s advisers — maybe recognizing that it’s arduous to win an election with out selling each technique of voting accessible — have told The Wall Street Journal that Trump will have a different strategy on voting in 2024. The marketing campaign is at present learning state legal guidelines to find out methods for extra Trump ballots to be counted, together with analyzing laws on poll amassing that may be submitted by third events.
Whereas Trump has wrongly characterised such practices as “poll harvesting,” he now seems to be embracing these strategies, whereas nonetheless criticizing Democrats for doing the identical.
In a recent fundraising email, Trump’s marketing campaign informed his followers that the “path ahead” to successful in 2024 “is to MASTER the Democrats’ personal recreation of harvesting ballots in each state we will.”
“Our presidential marketing campaign will launch our personal Poll Harvesting Fund within the states the place the Left has been dishonest the system,” the email adds.
Whereas Trump’s marketing campaign has indicated that he’ll push for the usage of voting strategies he as soon as condemned, it’s unclear whether or not any of his fundraising on the difficulty will truly go towards such efforts. As the House January 6 committee revealed in its investigation, Trump’s marketing campaign has constantly used funds for functions completely totally different from what he promised in fundraising emails to his followers.
“Not solely was there the Huge Lie,” committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) mentioned at a listening to in June, referring to Trump’s false claims of election fraud, “there was the Huge Rip-Off.”
