President Donald Trump’s attacks against voting by mail could damage his reelection bid, according to The Washington Post.
The newspaper reported Republicans have voted by mail in far lower numbers than Democrats in primaries since Trump claimed the voting process would lead to fraud.
And the president has claimed the biggest risk to his reelection efforts is mail -n voting.
The Post said about 60,000 fewer Republicans voted by mail in Georgia’s June 9 primaries compared to Democrats. And in the June 23 primary in Kentucky about 90% of Democrats voted before Election day either by casting their ballots early or by mail. Eighty percent of Republicans did the same.
And now when GOP campaigns urge supporters to vote by mail, they are hearing from Republican voters, who say they do not put much trust in absentee ballots.
“It’s very concerning for Republicans,” one GOP source told the Post. “I guarantee our Republican Senate candidates are having it drilled into them that they cannot accept this. They have to have sophisticated mail programs. If we don’t adapt, we won’t win.”
The Post said Trump is already locked in a tight reelection race and the coronavirus pandemic could make it more difficult for many of his supporters to vote in person.
His criticism of mail voting “does reduce the likelihood of Republicans embracing this process,” a senior GOP strategist said. “Especially for older, more rural voters, that could be important for Republicans getting out the vote in 2020. I don’t want ‘I will not vote by mail’ to become a political statement. But it may be too late.”