DES MOINES, Iowa – President Donald Trump’s campaign and allies have blocked efforts to expand voting by mail, forcing an awkward confrontation with senior Republican election officials who are promoting the opposite in their states.
The rare dissonance between Trump and other Republican elected officials also reflects another reality that the President will not admit: many in his party believe that expanding the mail vote could finally help him.
The Trump campaign has stepped in directly in Ohio, while allies have fired warning shots in Iowa and Georgia, aiming to blunt Republican secretaries of state in places that could be competitive in November.
“There is a dimension in legislatures that underfund or undermine election officials that could ironically counter-attack and harm Republicans,” said Michael McDonald, a professor at the University of Florida and director of the United States Election Project.
The action of these three secretaries of state, who are the main electoral officials in their states, was designed to facilitate access to ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. Trump has repeatedly made the unfounded claim that voting by mail could lead to fraud so widespread that it could undermine the integrity of the presidential election.
In Ohio last month, Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Bob Paduchik intervened in Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s proposal, insisting that Republican legislative leaders leave a provision to allow voters to submit ballot requests in absentia online, according to Republican officials involved in the discussions. Republican officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications about the legislation.
Ohio already allows the secretary of state to send absentee ballot requests to every registered voter. The provision was intended to allow for a faster processing option, while making application processing by mail available.
Paduchik, director of Trump’s 2016 Iowa campaign, insisted there will be no substantial change before the November Ohio election, which Trump won in 2016 by 8 percentage points under existing rules, according to Republican Party officials.
Trump’s campaign aides did not respond to requests for comment.
“This bill did not do everything I wanted it to do. In fact, there are several things I wanted to do that are not included in this bill, “LaRose said in a video statement this month, promising to try” to make some of those other changes in the future. “
Trump has protested the expansion of mail voting, arguing without evidence that the practice, despite being the primary voting method in Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah, is ripe for widespread fraud.
On Sunday, he renewed criticism and tweeted: “Voting by mail, on the other hand, will lead to the most corrupt election in the history of the United States. Bad things happen with Mail-Ins. “
That statement is part of a pattern. It has also incorrectly equated a secretary of state who widely distributes absentee requests with votes in Michigan.
Last week, after Iowa voters broke a record for participation in the 26-year-old state primary election, the majority of the Iowa Senate Republican Party lobbied to prevent Secretary of State Paul Pate from sending absentee ballots to 2 million registered voters this fall, as it did before June 3 primary.
Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Trump ally, signed compromise legislation last week that requires Pate and his successors to seek approval from a partisan legislative council for similar future actions. The GOP-controlled council unanimously rejected Pate’s request to widely submit absentee ballot requests this fall.
“My goal was to protect Iowa voters and poll workers while finding ways to conduct clean and fair elections,” Pate said last month. “I keep my decisions.”
His Georgia counterpart Brad Raffensperger faced a similar fate after he also sent absentee requests to nearly 7 million registered voters before the June state primaries. Although Raffensperger opposed putting proposed limits on his authority, the legislation to do so died when the legislature suspended the session and after he said he would not repeat the measure this fall.
Trump led Georgia, Iowa, and Ohio comfortably in 2016. To win again, he would probably need to match his sizable winning margins in his rural counties, home to many in his oldest white base.
Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has backed the vote by mail, saying it would make it easier for people to vote this November amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Some longtime Republican activists say expanded voting by mail is essential for older voters who are used to voting in person but who hesitate during the pandemic and who are unfamiliar with the process.
Ann Trimble Ray, a veteran Republican activist from Iowa, voted in the mail in June and says Pate made the right call, especially for the many older voters at his rural home in Sac County, which Trump led with 72% of the 2016 votes.
“We believe that reducing your exposure by voting absentee was considered,” he said. “I was grateful for the mail and encouragement from Secretary of State Pate for absentee voting.”
The consolidation of rural polling places, reduced electoral staff and long lines can deter vital rural voters for Trump, said University of California Irvine professor Richard Hasen, chairman of a committee of American scholars who has recommended changes before the 2020 elections.
“The voters Trump is hurting are probably his own when he makes these comments against voting by mail,” Hasen said, “because it’s a safe and generally effective way to cast a vote, especially in the midst of a pandemic.”
Verifying ballot request steps in Iowa and Georgia could also threaten the counting of rural votes, according to the McDonald’s study.
Although Ohio counts all ballots mailed by postmark on Election Day, multiple absentee ballots were late for the March 17 primaries, including 4,000 in Greene County in southeast Ohio, a county where Trump won 60% of the votes.
Unmanned election offices and the longer processing time between rural areas and subway postal centers could leave some rural voters unable to mail their ballots on time, McDonald said.
“I am quite convinced that the ballot request step is hurting rural voters,” McDonald said.
