Despite building a track record of opposing early and mail-in voting, former President Donald Trump’s campaign team has changed course with a new effort to promote and educate citizens on voting in ways other than just showing up to the polls on Election Day.
Swamp the Vote USA, created by Trump’s campaign and Trump Force 47, a grassroots program by the Republican National Committee, was launched on Tuesday.
Trump hopes to “swamp” Democrats by having more of his supporters vote either through absentee ballots or mail-in.
“If we swamp them with votes they can’t cheat,” the campaign said in a press release. “You need to make a plan, register, and vote any way possible. We have got to get your vote.”
Trump has said Republicans must use every possible tool to beat Democrats in the 2024 election. The effort will send voters information on their state’s voting options and will encourage them to vote early to prevent any inconveniences or unexpected obstacles that could come about on Election Day.
In the past few elections, more Democrats have voted via mail-in ballots than Republicans have. A Pew survey in February found that 84% of Democrats said people should be allowed to vote by mail without excuse, whereas 28% of Republicans said the same. This was a drastic drop in support among Republicans, for back in 2020, 50% of Republicans favored mail-in voting.
The drastic decline in support among Republicans may be attributed to Trump’s past rhetoric on mail-in votes.
Trump claimed mail-in ballots in the 2020 election were fraudulent and were used to help Democrats cheat.
Even just months before launching Swamp the Vote, Trump repeated his belief that early voting and mail-in voting is bad news for this country.
Three months ago, at a rally in Michigan, Trump said early voting was “totally corrupt” and “a hoax”; at an April rally in Pennsylvania, he compared early voting to “stealing” the vote.
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And at a rally in New Jersey last month, Trump encouraged voters to “get an absentee or mail-in ballot, vote early or vote on Election Day.” However, in the same speech, he claimed that mail-in voting was largely corrupt.
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, 69% of votes were cast early or by mail-in ballots.
