Mail-in voting continues to be a controversial topic within the Republican Party.
Mistrust of early voting remains among many loyalists of former President Donald Trump, who blamed his 2020 election loss on alleged voter fraud in several key battleground states.
Other Republicans, though, insist the party needs to follow Democrats in taking advantage of mail-in voting, especially in key states where early and mail balloting are employed.
Even Trump, the top contender running for the 2024 GOP nomination, has said that Republicans have "no choice" but to embrace the early voting method, the popularity of which shows few signs of receding.
Kari Lake, whose repeated legal challenges of her 2022 loss in Arizona's governor's race have been denied by the courts, also has adjusted her stance regarding mail balloting.
"While you know how I feel about mail-in ballots, if this is the game we have to play, if we've got to work in their rigged system, we'll work in their rigged system," Lake said in late May, The New York Times reported.
Trump told attendees at this month's Georgia Republican Party convention that "mail-in ballots, by the way, will always be dishonest," the Times reported.
"It's going to be corrupt, whether it's — I would never say this about our mailmen because we love our mailmen — but whether it's the mailmen or all the many people who touch those ballots," Trump said, the Times reported.
"They find them in rivers. They find them in streams. They find them all over the place. Many people got many ballots."
The Republican National Committee (RNC) recently announced that it had created a program, Bank Your Vote, to promote early voting, both by mail and in person.
The RNC called for Republicans to take advantage of "ballot harvesting," a practice that allows a third party to collect voters' completed ballots, where it is legal.
"To win close elections, we need to close the gap on pre-Election Day voting," Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, said in a video for the program.
Andy Reilly, a Republican National Committee member from Delaware County, Pa., said Democrats' early voting operation has been difficult to match.
"You better have a damn good Election Day operation," Reilly said, the Times reported. "There's no such thing as Election Day operations now. It's election season that they have to embrace."
Some in the GOP point to Democrats' success in taking advantage of laws that allow voting for a longer period, rather than just on Election Day.
"We need to treat this more like Lent and less like Halloween," said Jeff Roe, a longtime GOP strategist who's advising a super PAC supporting the presidential bid of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Times reported.
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