Republicans should ignore Trump’s vote-by-mail rants
California Republicans keep maiming themselves, taking positions directly opposite from where most voters stand.
The latest: They’re fighting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to send all registered voters mail ballots for the Nov. 3 election.
Why? Because President Trump is against widespread mail voting, though he himself does it. California Republicans — and too many Republicans everywhere — are Trump lemmings, following him blindly toward the autumn cliff.
Trump, with zilch evidence, claims that mail voting is rife with fraud. He’s actually afraid it will help Democrats — and it might. Mail-in ballots make it easier to vote, and Republicans typically vote regardless.
“If you ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said of mail voting on “Fox and Friends” in early April.
A month later, Republican Mike Garcia recaptured a U.S. House seat for the GOP in Los Angeles County in an all-vote-by-mail special election.
“Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to statewide mail-in voting,” Trump has tweeted. “Tremendous potential for voter fraud and, for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans.”
Trump may have firsthand knowledge of fraud. The Washington Post recently reported that Trump originally tried to register to vote in Florida while citing the White House as his “legal residence.” That’s a no-no. Under Florida law, you have to be a legal resident there to vote there. Trump resubmitted his voter application, using his Mar-a-Lago golf resort as his legal residence, and voted by mail in the Florida presidential primary.
The Republican Party — both nationally and in California — is suing Newsom, contending he doesn’t have the constitutional authority to tamper with federal elections. They contend “inactive” voters — those who haven’t cast ballots in the last four years — shouldn’t receive one by mail.
There are bills pending to send all registered voters mail ballots. And Friday, one of the authors, Assemblyman Marc Berman, D-Palo Alto, announced he’ll amend his measure to place only “active” voters on the mail ballot list.
“Nobody, nobody, nobody has ever said, ‘Let’s mail ballots to inactive voters,’ ” Berman told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The California GOP’s battle is merely the latest example of the party opposing what most state voters want. There’s a long subject list accumulated over the years: abortion, gay marriage, illegal immigration, gun control, environmental protection and so on.
It’s why the Republicans’ share of California voter registration has tumbled to 23.9% — roughly half the Democrats’ 45.3%. More voters are now registered as “No Party Preference,” 25.1%, than Republicans.
“The GOP is a circular firing squad in their assault on mail ballots,” says veteran Republican consultant Rob Stutzman. “Data shows that Republican voters are older and more likely to want an alternative to in-person voting during COVID-19 concerns.”
Stutzman adds: “What the antimail ballot push is really about is amplifying Trump’s deeply cynical and dangerous propaganda to try to delegitimize the election in the minds of millions of Americans.”
After Trump received fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016 but won the presidency in the Electoral College, he claimed millions of people voted illegally. He created a commission to investigate. But he shut it down when the commission couldn’t find any evidence of fraud.
“Vote-by-mail has been a proven secure practice in California for many years, dating back to the Civil War,” Democratic Secretary of State Alex Padilla says.
“The president’s claim that mail voting is fraudulent is offensive to not just me, but election officials across California. But it comes as no surprise. He’s a hypocrite. He votes by mail. He’s really trying to set the stage for challenging any election results he may not like.”
Roughly two-thirds of all California ballots cast in the 2018 general election were mailed. These are some fraud protections in place:
The voter must sign the ballot envelope, and the signature is matched against the one on the registration. Before any vote is counted, the state database is checked to ensure the person isn’t voting twice. Voter rolls are regularly purged of dead people. This year, voters can sign up to track their ballot.
The best reason for voting by mail this year is to avoid precinct crowds where the coronavirus might spread.
Republicans should ignore Trump and take the side that’s healthy — personally and politically.