Commentary: GOP Split on How to Handle Absentee Votes

“I can’t begin to understand what ballot harvesting is,” Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the former Republican House Speaker, said in an interview in the wake of a 2018 political upset in Orange County, California. Democrats had swept the congressional seats in one of California’s few Republican strongholds, largely due to a well-executed strategy of harvesting, or the collection and submission of ballots by someone other than the voter.    

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Republicans See Ballot Harvesting as a Necessary Evil in Some States Ahead of 2024

The Republican National Committee (RNC) unveiled a new election strategy on Wednesday that includes ballot harvesting in states where it’s legal, which conservative activists say is necessary to win elections in 2024.

The RNC’s new strategy, named “Bank Your Vote,” involves helping Republican voters cast their votes “as early as possible, through in-person early voting, absentee voting, and ballot harvesting where legal,” according to an email the RNC sent the DCNF. “Ballot harvesting,” a practice where absentee ballots are collected from voters by political employees and deposited at an election office or ballot drop box, has been strongly criticized by some Republicans in the past, though GOP candidates and activists now say it will be important to winning in 2024.

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Commentary: ‘Chasing’ Ballots is Not Enough

Apparently there’s some confusion about what some of us are actually proposing for winning in 2024. The best place to start in clearing up that confusion is by defining terms correctly.

We argued here and here, that if MAGA wishes to turn out its voters and win, the movement and its candidates must aggressively pursue their vote by securing their consent, and then, protecting them by implementing that agenda. Some have found these arguments less than persuasive because they fear Republicans are joining the Democrats in their less-than-honest methods of securing votes. So, we must explain further for those who appear confused.

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Trump Says GOP Has ‘No Choice’ But to Embrace Ballot Harvesting

Former President Donald Trump on Monday asserted that Republicans must embrace ballot harvesting in the states that permit the practice in order to win the next election.

“So for 2024, should Republicans embrace early voting, voting by mail, and embrace the tactics of the Democrats and follow the ballot harvesting laws of their respective states?” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked in an interview that premiered Monday.

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Pennsylvania Political Consultant: Philadelphia Suburbs a Hotbed of a Legal Version of Ballot Harvesting

Pennsylvania just completed its third year of no-excuse mail-in voting, with Democrats scoring major victories in statewide and legislative offices. According to a political strategist from the state’s southeast, one factor affecting the Democrats’ 2022 success was its engagement in a legal form of “ballot harvesting” in the suburbs west of Philadelphia.

Athan Koutsiouroumbas, a managing director of the Harrisburg-based consultancy Long Nyquist and Associates, refers in a Monday commentary for RealClearPennsylvania to Democrats’ efforts to encourage mail-in voting in Delaware County. He called the effort a “completely legal ballot-harvesting juggernaut.” 

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Twitter Removes Warning Flag on ‘Just the News’ Ballot-Harvesting Story After Direct Appeal to Musk

Elon Musk

Twitter has removed its warning label on a post from the account of Just the News editor-in-chief John Solomon about his story on a whistleblower alleging ballot harvesting in Florida, following Solomon’s direct appeal to the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk.

Solomon made the post Thursday that included a link to his interview with the whistleblower. The label was put on the post Friday, and as of Monday morning, it was no longer there.

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New Report: Pennsylvania Suffers from ‘Myriad of Election Issues’

Pennsylvania House State Government Committee Chairman Seth Grove (R-York) released a report Tuesday detailing “a myriad of election issues” in the Keystone State. 

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol Building, Grove reviewed his findings, including inconsistent vote-counting rules, ballot harvesting, fraud and administrative errors. The new report is the third he has issued concerning election problems since November 2020. 

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Rep. Grove Rebukes Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s ‘Voter Intimidation’ Claims

Pennsylvania Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) castigated the state’s Democratic acting secretary of the commonwealth on Saturday for suggesting that stationing Lehigh County detectives at ballot drop boxes will amount to “voter intimidation.”

Acting Secretary of State Leigh Chapman last week said that tactics to intimidate voters have “a long history in this country” and that “the mere presence of police at a ballot drop box can deter voters from casting their ballot.” She also mentioned that she has been in conversation with her staff about attempting to dissuade Lehigh County from assigning law-enforcement professionals to watch drop boxes into which absentee voters may place their ballots.

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Pennsylvania Lawmaker Proposes ‘Office of Election Crimes and Security’

Pennsylvania State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Gettysburg) announced on Thursday he intends to draft legislation creating an Office of Election Crimes and Security.

The new division within the Pennsylvania Department of State would be charged with probing all alleged violations of voting laws. The proposed bill also targets “ballot harvesting,” the illegal practice of hand-delivering absentee ballots — usually by depositing them in election drop boxes — on behalf of voters other than oneself. Currently, state law treats ballot harvesting as a misdemeanor; Mastriano’s measure would make it a third-degree felony.

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Pennsylvania Senate Passes Election Integrity Measures

Pennsylvania Republican Senators this week celebrated their chamber’s passage of two pieces of election-security legislation.

One bill, sponsored by state Sen. Cris Dush (R-Wellsboro), would prohibit the use of drop boxes to collect mail-in and absentee ballots. The other, sponsored by Sens. Lisa Baker (R-Dallas) and Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-Jacobus), would bar state or county employees from approving the use of private donations to fund election administration.

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Pennsylvania Governor Candidate, U.S. Senator Doug Mastriano Promises Election Integrity

Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed Pennsylvania US Senator and candidate for governor, Dough Mastriano to talk about why he’s running and his stance on election integrity.

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Montgomery County, Pennsylvania GOP Says County Democratic Officials Ignoring Election Rules to Protect Their Own

Person putting mail-in ballot in ballot return box

Montgomery County, Pennsylvania’s Democrat-controlled administration has defended a woman who dropped off numerous voters’ absentee ballots last year—and Republicans are saying political favoritism is the reason.

As The Pennsylvania Daily Star reported last week, Montgomery County Chief Operating Officer   Lee Soltysiak wrote a letter to Montgomery County Republican Committee (MCRC) Chair Liz Preate Havey insisting that MCRC was “irresponsible” to allege the woman acted illegally. 

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Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Denies That Ballot Harvesting Occurred

A Montgomery County, Pennsylvania administrator this week responded to the local Republican Party’s allegations of “ballot harvesting,” insisting that video surveillance does not show that it occurred.

As The Pennsylvania Daily Star reported, Montgomery County Republican Committee (MCRC) Chair Liz Preate Havey addressed the county Board of Commissioners last Thursday regarding numerous election-integrity concerns. She mentioned video footage of a woman depositing handfuls of ballots into a drop box in Upper Dublin Township in the run-up to the 2021 general election. Such drop boxes have been in use in Pennsylvania for absentee-ballot delivery since 2020. 

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Georgia Elections Chief Vows to ‘Follow the Money’ in Harvesting Probe, Prosecute if Warranted

Georgia’s election chief is vowing a full-scale investigation into allegations Democrats may have illegally harvested ballots in the 2020 election, saying his team is preparing subpoenas to “follow the money” and bring prosecutions if warranted.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sought to dispel whispers in conservative circles that he is slow-walking the probe he announced in January, explaining to Just the News that the only delays are related to administrative changes on the State Elections Board. That panel possesses the power to issue subpoenas Raffensperger says his investigators need to solve the case.

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Georgia Opens Investigation into Possible Illegal Ballot Harvesting in 2020 Election

Georgia authorities have launched an investigation into an allegation of systematic ballot harvesting during the state’s 2020 general election and subsequent U.S. Senate runoff and may soon issue subpoenas to secure evidence, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger confirmed to Just the News.

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