Republicans should consider how they balance highlighting their “election integrity” effort, which seeks to deploy thousands of poll watchers and attorneys, with their GOTV push in the final weeks of the campaign. That’s because many low-propensity GOP voters, who have heard consistent negative messaging from former President Trump about the vote-by-mail (VBM) process, likely end up forgoing early vote options altogether. That leaves all the pressure to get them out to the polls left to Election Day itself.
“They’re low-propensity for a reason,” Rick Wiley, a partner at GOP firm Black Diamond Strategies, recently told C&E.
“On our side of the aisle, we don’t trust the post office either so people are going to start to say, ‘I can’t put that ballot in the mail because the post office won’t deliver it,” he said. “It’s been a problem for a couple cycles now.”
Wiley joins a chorus of GOP voices who have urged their party to take a different approach to GOTV and VBM — especially with so many races and states set to be decided by small margins in November. “Moving forward, something has to change,” he said. “It’s becoming a problem. You have to use all of the tools available to you to turn out voters… We take some of that off the field.”
Now, the national party committees typically play an outsized role during GOTV season. But Wiley noted that while the RNC is focused on its “election integrity” effort, the Harris-Walz ticket, which recently surpassed the $1 billion mark in its fundraising, is moving money down-ballot to the tune of $25 million.
“Unfortunately, when you’re trying to run a massive election integrity program, which is needed, that takes away from your turnout effort… you’ve got to be able to do both things at the same time,” he said. “My fear is that we’re airing on the side of one and not turning out voters on the other — hoping that low-propensity voters will turn out.”
Wiley noted that the Harris-Walz cash infusion is likely to help fund slate-style mail pieces that’ll help down-ballot candidates raise their name ID in the final stretch. “That $25 million is kind of looming large right now,” he said. “I don’t see $25 million coming down-ballot to some of the Republicans.”
