Key Takeaways* 😕 The Republican National Committee spent millions on "Bank Your Vote" programs while Trump called mail voting "corrupt".* 🗳️ At least 34 countries use mail voting, contradicting Trump's claim that America is "the only country" using it.* 📊 In 2024, Republicans increased their mail voting share in Pennsylvania from 24% to 33%, helping them win key races.* ⚖️ The Constitution gives states power over elections, not the president, making Trump's executive order threat largely symbolic.* 🌊 Democratic voters continue to use mail voting more consistently, creating a partisan gap that hurts Republicans in low-turnout elections.* 📈 Despite Trump's claims, election experts agree mail voting is secure with multiple verification steps in place.* 🏛️ Several Republican-controlled states have actually expanded mail voting access while their party leaders attack it.* 🔮 The GOP's contradictory position may hurt their long-term election prospects as their voters become confused about proper voting methods.The GOP's Massive Investment In Mail Voting InfrastructureI've been following Republican election strategies for years, and their approach to mail voting really confuses me sometimes. Like, they've actually spent millions trying to get their voters to use mail ballots while Trump keeps calling the whole thing corrupt. The RNC's "Bank Your Vote" program wasn't just some small initiative, it was a major nationwide effort with fancy websites and everything telling Republicans they "should feel comfortable" voting by mail . They even got Trump to record a message supporting it at one point, though that didn't last too long honestly.What's interesting is that Republican operatives actually saw mail voting as a huge opportunity before Trump started his attacks. They'd mastered large-scale mail voter drives and recognized that mail voting could help them reach low-propensity voters, especially in rural areas where polling places might be far apart . The data shows that before 2020, mail voting didn't really have a partisan lean, it was just another voting method that both parties used about equally.The numbers from 2024 show their investment kinda worked in some places. In Pennsylvania, Republicans managed to increase their share of the mail vote from 24% in 2020 to 33% in 2024 through what the New York Times called a "multifaceted campaign of messaging, fund-raising and field operations" . In deep-red states like Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa, Republicans actually made up the majority of mail voters after Democrats had dominated in 2020. And in Arizona, a swing state where most people vote by mail, Republicans had an eight-point advantage over Democrats in mail voting .Table: Republican Mail Voting Improvements in 2024 But here's the thing, while the party was spending all this money on mail voting, Trump was out there telling everyone it was corrupt. This created what one analyst called "a trap of their own making" . They've got this institutional knowledge that mail voting helps them win, but they also have a leader who constantly undermines the very system they're investing in.Trump's Consistent Pattern of Attacking Mail VotingSo Trump's thing with mail voting, he's been against it for years now, right? Like even before the 2020 election he was saying it was corrupt, and he's kept at it even after winning in 2024. I remember watching one rally where he told people in Michigan "Mail-in voting is totally corrupt. Get that through your head" and then at a Fox News town hall he said "If you have mail-in voting, you automatically have fraud" . It's like he's got this set talking points he just keeps repeating regardless of what his own party is doing.What's really confusing is that Trump himself has voted by mail in the past. Like multiple times. And in 2024, he actually kinda softened his stance a bit under pressure from party leaders and told his supporters to vote early . But that didn't last long, now he's back to full-throttle attacks, promising executive orders and everything to try to eliminate mail voting entirely .The most recent thing was when he met with Putin and then came out saying Putin agreed with him that the 2020 election was rigged because of mail voting. He told Hannity: "Vladimir Putin said something, one of the most interesting things. He said, 'Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting.' He said, 'Mail-in voting, every election.' He said, 'No country has mail-in voting. It's impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections'" . Which is complete nonsense if you actually check the facts, but we'll get to that later.Trump's also been making this weird constitutional argument that states are "merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government" in counting votes and must do what the president tells them . But every constitutional scholar I've read says that's just completely wrong. The Constitution gives states the power to run elections, not the ...
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