Sen. Mitt Romney Willard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyMcConnell: Beefed up unemployment benefits will not be in next coronavirus bill Senate Republicans issue first subpoena in Biden-Burisma probe Trump tries to soothe anxious GOP senators MORE (R-Utah) pushed back against President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump taps Brooke Rollins as acting domestic policy chief Trump takes pandemic fight to Michigan Trump to celebrate Memorial Day at Baltimore's Fort McHenry MORE’s claims that voting by mail disadvantages Republicans, noting that large numbers of voters in Utah, a Republican stronghold, vote by mail.
"In my state, I'll bet 90 percent of us vote by mail. It works very, very well and it's a very Republican state," Romney told reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday, according to ABC News.
Much of the Western U.S. has voted by mail for years, and a poll released Wednesday found residents of those states are among the demographics most likely to say they would prefer to vote by mail rather than in person. Nevada’s state Republican Party is currently running Facebook ads encouraging voters to mail ballots in ahead of the deadline.
Trump, who voted by mail himself in Florida's primary this year, has stepped up his attacks on mail-in voting, threatening to withhold federal funds from Michigan after its secretary of state announced all voters would be mailed an application for an absentee ballot. Trump initially wrongly described the state as mailing out “absentee ballots” before deleting the tweet and posting a new one describing them as “applications.”
Trump sent a similar tweet about Nevada, where all active registered voters will automatically receive a mail-in ballot ahead of the June primary.
Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske (R) also pushed back, saying in a statement, "Secretary Cegavske lawfully declared the 2020 primary election as a mail-in election," according to ABC News.
"Nevada has many safeguards in place to ensure the integrity of an all-mail election, including signature requirements and verification processes, preprinted ballot return envelopes, barcode tracking, and laws against ballot harvesting,” her office added. “Voters concerned with mailing in their ballot may drop off their ballot at any designated drop-off location in their county."
An April study of county-level election results in Utah and California indicated offering vote by mail as an option does not advantage either party over the other.
TimeRemove on May 21st, 2020 at 13:58 UTC »
The reality is that Voting-By-Mail makes it easier for all voters to vote. Republican, Democratic, or other.
Plus it gives you the opportunity to do more research before you cast your vote. Particularly on local races (e.g. judges, prosecutors, school board, etc) that you might not be as informed about. I suspect it is this "time to research" aspect that scares them so much, it reduces the "I voted for the one I had heard of" factor that they count on to allow corruption to continue unabated.
Waxcarver on May 21st, 2020 at 13:55 UTC »
I really appreciate Romney repeatedly speaking out against trumps outrageous remarks, even if his motivations for doing so are murky. It’s good to have a GOP senator who doesn’t follow the deny reality script at all times.
TheTackyTurd on May 21st, 2020 at 13:46 UTC »
Didn’t Trump vote by mail himself?