DV Journal

To improve voter turnout, Republicans are now embracing mail-in ballots, an innovation Democrats readily adopted.

Party leaders hope to combat skepticism among the rank and file by touting mail-in voting to ensure their voters can vote no matter what happens on Election Day.

In a press phone call on Tuesday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said the new program, Bank Your Vote, is needed, using a sports analogy.

“We can all agree you don’t want your football team to start scoring in the fourth quarter and think you’re going to win the game. We all know there’s no longer just an election day. There’s an election season,” McDaniel said.

Pennsylvania GOP Chair Lawrence Tabas said the 2023 election is “critical,” with statewide judicial races and municipal and school board races.

“You have until Oct. 31 at 5 p.m. to apply for (a mail-in) ballot,” said Tabas. He said the Pennsylvania GOP has been closing the voter gap and now stands at 235,000. “We’re committed that winning in ’23 is the path to winning in ’24.”

“Bank Your Vote is a crucial step,” Tabas said.

Dave McCormick, the endorsed Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, said, “The stakes are high.”

“With inflation from gas to groceries, Keystone State families are suffering from high inflation of a 20 percent rise in prices under the failed leadership of (President) Joe Biden and (Sen.) Bob Casey and that’s hurting all Pennsylvanians. But it’s hurting elders on fixed incomes. It’s hurting working families. As a result of this, Pennsylvania remains in the worst half of states for unemployment rates. And this is also killing small business owners.”

Treasurer Stacy Garrity, who will be running for reelection in 2024 and was also recently endorsed by the party, also urged people to bank their votes.

It helps so “life doesn’t get in the way.”

“We also need our most reliable voters to vote before election day to help our Republican candidates know who voted,” said Garrity. That pre-voting saves campaigns money that they won’t have to spend sending out mailings and reminders, so they can use it to target infrequent voters or independent voters.

The DVJournal asked how the GOP can reassure skeptical voters that their votes are secure if they use mail-in ballots.

McDaniel said in 2022, 80,000 poll workers were recruited nationwide who were there not just on election day but throughout the voting period.

“On top of that, we have a robust team of election integrity lawyers that are being deployed to the states. Pennsylvania already has some in place that are on the ground working with the counties to make sure that we know they’re going to administer the elections and making sure that’s being done,” she said. “And we can take decisive action quickly to protect your vote.”

Echoing Garrity, she said, “We cannot afford to chase ballots all the way through Election Day…We have to get these ballots in earlier.”

Tabas said a system was in place to track mail-in ballots. If a voter contacts their county party and says they did not get their ballot or their confirmation, “We’re on top of that,” he said.

Another question asked concerned “curing” ballots or allowing voters to fix mistakes, which has differed from county to county in the past.

Tabas blamed the courts for that discrepancy and said it was important for every county to operate under the same rules.

“Pennsylvania has to be assured that there are uniform rules so that if they’re counting your ballot anywhere in the commonwealth, it will be counted on the same basis, no matter where you live. Your ZIP code shouldn’t determine how your ballot ends up getting counted.”

Asked why the party has had a “change of heart” regarding mail-in ballots, McDaniel said it was necessary to adopt them to be competitive.

“This is a 2023, 2024 strategy that’s going to go on in the future and will result in big victories for Republicans in Pennsylvania,” said Tabas.

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The Republican Party of Pennsylvania and the Republican National Committee on Tuesday sent demand letters to the Shapiro administration asking for more information about the governor’s announced plan to automatically register new voters when they get their driver’s licenses or state identification.

Those letters are commonly issued immediately prior to a lawsuit. In October 2022, the RNC and PAGOP won a major battle before Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court after suing to stop undated absentee ballots from being counted. The RNC is currently involved in nearly 60 election integrity lawsuits nationwide.

“Gov. Shapiro is springing an unclear and unnecessary last-minute rule change on Pennsylvania voters just weeks ahead of a key November election,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “He cares more about getting airtime on MSNBC than making sure Pennsylvania elections are secure and transparent. The RNC and PAGOP are continuing our shared mission of fighting for election integrity in the Keystone State by demanding immediate answers.”

The first letter, to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, asked about safeguarding voters’ information when the Pennsylvania of Transportation (PennDOT) handles automatic voter registration across the state. In the past, voters had to “opt-in” for voter registration when getting their driver’s license, and most registrations were handled by the counties. Now, the state will assume people getting their driver’s license also want their information sent on to register them to vote unless they choose to “opt-out.”

“Unfortunately, the only information provided on this new voter registration process is found in Governor Shapiro’s press release, leaving unanswered many important questions about how PennDOT is implementing these changes, how the new system operates, and what safeguards are in place to keep ineligible individuals off the state’s list of registered voters,” the letter reads.

“As I am sure you agree, since this new process has been implemented just weeks before the October 23, 2023, voter-registration deadline for the November 7, 2023, election, a more complete explanation will facilitate voter education as to the process. Although PennDOT may have taken the lead on operationalizing these changes, Pennsylvania law vests ‘the primary responsibility for implementing and enforcing the license voter registration system’ to the Secretary of the Commonwealth,” the letter said.

It asked what steps would be taken to prevent those not eligible to vote from registering, including people under 18, felons, out-of-state residents, and non-citizens.

The second letter, to Mike Carroll, state secretary of transportation, similarly asked how PennDOT would make sure only those eligible to vote are registered.

“There are important questions necessary to educate our voters and eliminate confusion,” said Pennsylvania GOP chair Lawrence Tabas. “Voting is a key pillar of democracy, and the process to register should be as easy and transparent as possible.”

Former President Donald Trump has long complained about how Pennsylvania handled the 2020 election, and he used the governor’s unilateral actions to repeat his claims that Democrats are using the Keystone State’s election rules to disadvantage Republicans.

“Pennsylvania is at it again! The Radical Left Governor, Josh Shapiro, has just announced a switch to Automatic Voter Registration, a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “This is a totally Unconstitutional Act and must be met harshly by Republican Leadership in Washington and Pennsylvania. Likewise, the RNC and Ronna McDaniel must spend their time working on this, instead of meaningless Debates where I am up by more than 50 points.”

The next GOP presidential debate is Sept. 27 at 9 p.m. Trump has declined to participate.

Shapiro did not respond to a request for comment.

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The Republican Party is going “full forward on a mail-in ballot strategy,” said Pennsylvania GOP Chair Lawrence Tabas.

The DVJournal asked Tabas how he would convince Republican voters to vote by mail since, for several years, they tended to vote on Election Day unless they needed an absentee ballot.

“We have developed a task force,” said Tabas. “We’re working very strongly now on educating our voters as to the benefits of voting by mail. We’ll be working with the RNC on this, and I am very confident that you will see a much larger vote by Republicans supporting our candidates this year and next year.”

In 2021 the Republicans increased mail-in ballots at a higher rate than Democrats, he said.

In a June 7 press call, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said the Bank Your Vote Campaign is a nationwide effort.

“We all know, we’re all very aware, we no longer have an Election Day, we have an election season,” said McDaniel. “Many, many states have weeks and weeks of early voting.  Bank Your Vote will make sure Republicans take advantage of that.”

In Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots are mailed out to voters 30 days before an election.

McDaniel said she wants to raise awareness among GOP voters well before 2024 that they can “lock in their votes as early as possible.”

“We’ve got to double down,” said McDaniel. “We’ve got to educate our voters. I think of it this way. We have some voters that like to vote on Election Day. We have to explain to them we can’t allow Democrats to get a head start.”

“Why are you going to wait until the fourth quarter to score a touchdown when you have four quarters to put points on the board? That’s what this whole initiate is about, and we’re going to lead the charge in getting Republicans to chase ballots and build an advantage before Election Day.”

After 2020 voters were “skittish,” she said.  “They needed to know their vote would be protected. That’s why we recruited 80,000 poll watchers and poll workers.”

They also filed 100 election integrity lawsuits in the 2022 cycle.  She wants voters to know that “if they vote early, their vote will be protected.”

She said they will have workers on the ground, going door-to-door, as well as digital teams. They will target younger voters on social media.

“We will protect the House, flip the Senate and make Joe Biden a one-term president,” said McDaniel.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and tasked with electing and re-electing senators, said, “If we learned one thing in the last election cycle, 2022, it’s we need to turn Election Day into Election Month.”

“The Democrats outraised us financially in past cycles,” he said. “What they’ve also done is dominated in early and mail-in voting.”

Sen. Bill Haggerty (R-Tenn.) said. At the same time, Republicans have a “great map,” with three Democrats running in red states, an unpopular president, and an open border “that’s fueling a drug overdose epidemic.”

“We’ve got an energy policy that is absolutely absurd, making America less competitive rather than more so,” he said. “We’ve got an economy that’s dealing with inflation at record levels.” And numerous foreign policy challenges around the world. But they can’t take these advantages for granted.

“We have got to bank our votes early.   We have a great opportunity to vote… A friend said, ‘You don’t want to put off buying that Christmas present until Christmas Day.’”

And Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said they are “focused on keeping House majority and growing it.”

They plan to recruit “strong candidates” and run “strong campaigns,” giving those candidates the “resources they need to win.”

Guy Ciarrocchi, the former chair of the Chester County Chamber of Commerce who ran for governor last year, wrote an op-ed in 2021 telling fellow Republicans to embrace mail-in ballots.

“Unilateral disarmament has never been an effective winning strategy,” said Ciarrocchi on Friday. “Conservatives are duty-bound to learn how to successfully execute a mail-in vote effort; otherwise, we risk losing races—no matter how effective our Election-Day strategy is.”

Jake Zane, spokesman for the Delaware County Republican Party, said Chairman Frank Agovino’s first step as a new chair was to form a committee on mail-in ballots.

“And that committee issued a report,” said Zane. “We’re moving forward with a plan to boost Republican turnout with a mail-in ballot effort through the hard work of our committee and robust digital efforts.”

Enthusiasm ran high among the 250 committee people, elected officials, and candidates at the Montgomery County Republican Committee’s Fall Dinner last week at the Normandy Farm Hotel in Blue Bell. The event both honored outgoing state Sen. Bob Mensch (R-Bucks/Montgomery/Berks), who is retiring, and gave the GOP faithful a message for the upcoming midterm elections.

County Republican Chair Liz Preate Havey and state GOP Chair Lawrence Tabas rallied the Republican troops, with some help from special guests Matt and Mercedes Schlapp of CPAC fame.

“These two people are the hardest working people,” said public relations pro Alexandra Preate who moderated the event. “You can’t imagine phone calls at 2 o’clock in the morning or text messages. They never say no. They travel all around the country. They have a young family,” Preate said.

53rd District state Rep. candidate Jennifer Sodha with Nancy Becker, vice chair Montgomery County Republican Committee.

“Mercedes and I are 1,000 percent behind Doug Mastriano and 1,000 percent behind Dr. Oz,” Matt Schlapp, chair of the American Conservative Union, said. “Dr. Oz is a rare politician. He called us to say, ‘Can I take you to breakfast?’ He took us to the Royal Restaurant, which is kind of legendary in Alexandria (Virginia). He did something that Donald Trump did. He asked questions, and he didn’t talk. He listened.”

Usually, “politicians always talk the whole time until you think, ‘I’ve got to get out of here. My ears are going to bleed pretty soon.’ Not Dr. Oz.

“The other thing he did, he’s a famous guy and he was so nice to people. People were pouring out of the kitchen. Everybody wanted to meet Dr. Oz. He’s exactly what we need in our politics today.”

On current political conditions, Matt Schlapp said, “Our country has a virus, and it’s not COVID. We have a virus called self-loathing. We’re teaching our kids to hate our country. We’re teaching our kids to disrespect their parents. We’re teaching our kids that God is an old-fashioned value.”

“America is under attack by a virus that wants to undermine her. And I think we all get it. We’ve woken up from our slumber and our stupor. And I think Pennsylvania is going to lead the way,” he said.

Schlapp, a regular on Fox News and other conservative media outlets also turned his sights on the Democrats.

“I often think when I walk our city streets, especially Washington, D.C. with double-digit increases in murder, violent crime ever since they… started to say that cops were bad. I’ve often said, it doesn’t make much sense that the Democrats say, ‘I have a policy solution. Let’s legalize all drugs.’”

“Look at your lieutenant governor or whatever you refer to him as–”

Preate cut in, “We call him Shrek, sometimes.”

“The idea that just listening to him, the idea of legalizing all drugs seems insane,” he said. “I feel like we’re in an insane moment.”

Mercedes Schlapp said she believed GOP success in November centers around the Keystone State. “Pennsylvania is the epicenter of this red wave. We are going to make Pennsylvania red again. It will happen in our lifetime, I promise you. People are fed up.”

And, she argued, it is not just because of inflation.

“I know we talk about the economy that’s putting so much pressure on families, but it is these cultural issues,” she said. “It is the fact that you have these schools, these leftists pushing sex changes at the age of 5 or 6, that they are normalizing the use of puberty blockers for our children. This is disgusting, and this is what we have to stop. And I have seen parents, the ones that didn’t want to get involved in politics, have had to rise up. And I see that so much here in Pennsylvania where moms have said, ‘I’ve never done that before, but I’m going to get active, and I’m going to make sure we make a difference in our local school boards.’”

Liz Havey and members of the Lower Merion High School Conservative Club

There were also kind words from Havey for guest of honor state Sen. Bob Mensch.

Mensch brought performance-based budget to the state, transforming the budgeting process, so every line item and department is reviewed yearly “like a business,” Havey said.

“His second huge accomplishment, in my view, you know his wife passed after fighting a really long battle with cancer,” she said. “And Bob made sure in the legislature over the last many years that women with breast cancer have the testing and insurance coverage that they need,” she said. “He really impacted thousands of women across this commonwealth, twice receiving the prestigious Pink Ribbon Award, the only person in Pennsylvania to get the award twice from the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition.”

She said Mensch has also been “a true friend” to many Republicans. He mentored her, helped her become the party chair, and helped many candidates.

Mensch, who served for 16 years in the legislature, thanked the audience for supporting him and supporting the Montgomery County Republicans.

“I truly appreciate the recognition,” he said. “We need candidates to run and run and run to get elected. We have some great candidates. We can’t just cede all of this to the Democrats.”

“There’s been a lot of talk about (Democratic Senate candidate John) Fetterman here,” said Mensch. “I worked with Fetterman for four years. As the lieutenant governor, your biggest responsibility is to run the Senate. You’re the president of the Senate. It’s scripted. Literally, and to his left is the parliamentarian. If there’s any question, she’s there for his help, and she’s dynamite. And he can’t read the script. He can’t do the job. So, what does that say? He says he transformed the job of lieutenant governor. If you can’t do the job, he’s transformed it.”

Havey, who joked about living in the very Democratic town of Lower Merion, welcomed a group of Lower Merion High School students who are members of a student Conservative Club.

Senior Andrew Coyne, 17, said he founded the club last year because “conservatives needed a space to talk about their opinions without being called racist. Lower Merion High School always talks about diversity and inclusion but not so much diversity of thought.”

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Paris Dennard was among the Republican luminaries who attended a rally to open a new Republican National Committee (RNC) Community Center in Philadelphia’s Germantown section.

The center, which opened last week, is one of three new RNC community centers around the country, part of the party’s outreach to minority community voters. It will house ward leader meetings, social events, community gatherings, and voter registration drives. At the opening, the late Daphne Gibbons, a Philadelphia ward leader, was recognized with a plaque presented to her sons and grandson.

Dennard, a GOP strategist, commentator, and writer, is currently RNC director of Black media affairs.

Asked by the Delaware Valley Journal about Democrat politicians who seem to believe they can use the name “Trump” and claim Republicans are for voter suppression to win this fall, Dennard cited Republican wins last November in Virginia.

“How they tried to insert President Trump’s name as a negative factor, and it backfired,” said Dennard. “And you have Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who won with 13 percent of the Black vote, and Winsome Sears become the first Black immigrant, as well as veteran (and) Black woman, to become lieutenant governor, winning 17 percent of the Black vote.

“In places like Georgia, they tried to lie about the laws, saying that you can’t get food and drink in lines,” Dennard said. “They said things that were just absolutely not true, which led to Georgia losing $100 million in revenue when they removed the (2021) All-Star game from there. I think the Black community is smart enough to understand what these laws are doing and differentiate between the tried and true liberal rhetoric of division and race-baiting versus the actuality of what Republicans are trying to do, which is to make it easier for people to vote and harder for people to cheat.”

Dennard worked in the White House for President George W. Bush.

“It was the great honor of a lifetime,” he said. “I was 24 years old and right out of college. And being there at so many historical moments in a Republican administration was truly humbling and something I’ll never forget.”

The Republican Party has welcomed him and is inclusive, he said.

“I’m living proof of the inclusivity of our party,” said Dennard. And he said more than 80 Black Republicans are running for Congress this election cycle.

Philadelphia ward leaders, candidates and public officials, as well as community members, packed the new RNC Community Center on Wayne Avenue, listening to speakers, then enjoying a dinner that featured fried chicken and cornbread.

Lawrence Tabas

“This office is just a first step. It is a step that will be critical and important,” said Pennsylvania GOP Chairman Lawrence Tabas.

All Republicans “need to begin a listening tour so that we can start to work together and build a partnership. And I don’t mean just when the cameras are rolling. I don’t mean just during an election cycle like this. I mean, all throughout the year…the ideas and the programs and policies that you can talk to us about so we can put them into action will be critical.”

Calvin Tucker, deputy chairman of the Pennsylvania GOP, said, “We’re standing here in the heart of Germantown. We are steeped with history and culture. I just want to go back to 1688 in our community, here in Germantown. The Germantown members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), they were the first group in this nation to stand against slavery. That’s an investment they made at that point, in human nature. Today the RNC, the Pennsylvania GOP, and the Philly GOP are making an additional investment in who we are because it’s important.”

Calvin Tucker

While we had record low unemployment for everyone, including African Americans, under President Trump, now there is ‘Bidenflation.’ We have invasions. We long for those days when we had strength.”

State Rep. Martina White, chair of the Philly GOP, gave a rousing speech.

“We know what we’ve been through in these past 60 years of Democrat rule in the city of Philadelphia,” said White. “And while they may call it progress, I’ll tell you–” The crowd laughed. She told them it was important to talk to their friends and relatives about politics.

“Homicides are at historic highs in our city,” said White. “Criminals on our streets are stealing the lives of our youths and ripping away any comfort and safety for our families and business owners that they did at one time have in our neighborhoods. We believe in fully funding law enforcement so they can provide community policing. We want the district attorney to prosecute criminals who are breaking our laws and terrorizing our communities.”

Rep. Martina White

She also touched on school choice so students can get a “quality education regardless of their Zip code,” saying Democrats are in the “pockets of the teachers’ unions.”

Dennard also spoke to the crowd, saying that besides the new community centers, the RNC made “a five-figure media buy” on Black news stations for Black History Month, honoring Black Republican elected officials.

RNC Co-Chair Tommy Hicks rallied the audience.

“We’ve all got to do our part to make sure the 21st century is the American 21st century,” said Hicks. “And unfortunately that is not a given. It’s clear that our nation is suffering under the failed leadership of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the Squad who rules all of them.”

He added, “Inflation (at) 40-year highs, the price of everything from food, transportation to heating oil is going up. This is a hidden tax on the American people esp. affecting the middle class and lower-income Americans. You name it, it’s going up…And this sagging economy is a direct result of the Democrat Party, their failed policies are making life harder on all of us.”

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