共和党全国委员会周三发起了一项努力增加2024年的提前投票率，寻求削减民主党的优势，并加大共和党与前总统唐纳德·特朗普之间的距离过去对邮件和提前投票的批评。
RNC女主席罗娜·麦克丹尼尔(Ronna McDaniel)宣布“支持你的投票”，该党在一份新闻稿中表示，这将“鼓励、教育和激励共和党选民在何时、何地以及如何通过亲自提前投票、缺席投票和合法的选票收集尽早锁定他们的选票。”
这项努力将让选民在BankYourVote.com注册，触发RNC关于提前投票选项的数字提醒。该党还将激活其志愿者网络——RNC表示，在过去两个选举周期中，该网络已经进行了超过3亿次志愿者敲门和电话呼叫——以激活“邻居之间的联系，以通知和动员共和党人”
麦克丹尼尔在一份声明中说:“为了在2024年击败乔·拜登和民主党人，我们必须确保共和党人尽可能多地在选举日之前投票。”“RNC自豪地在我们自上一个周期以来的历史性努力的基础上，与整个共和党生态系统合作，覆盖每一个州。银行业提前投票需要成为全国每一场共和党竞选活动的焦点，共和党全国委员会将带头发起冲锋。”
自新冠肺炎上台以来，提前投票和邮寄投票变得越来越普遍，但还没有被两大政党平等接受。
根据汇编的数据美国选举项目，2022年中期选举的早期投票中，33.8%来自共和党，42.5%来自民主党。
2022年11月8日，共和党全国委员会主席Ronna McDaniel在华盛顿特区威斯汀华盛顿酒店聆听。
汤姆·威廉姆斯/美联社，档案
众议院共和党人竞选团队主席、北卡罗来纳州众议员理查德·哈德森(Richard Hudson)和全国共和党参议员委员会主席、蒙大拿州的史蒂夫·戴恩斯(Steve Daines)表示支持共和党的新举措，任命佛罗里达州众议员拜伦·唐纳兹(Byron Donalds)和田纳西州众议员比尔·哈格蒂(Bill Clinton)共同主持这项工作。
哈格蒂在自己的声明中说:“为了夺回白宫和参议院，并在2024年加强我们在众议院的多数席位，共和党人必须按照今天的规则来玩游戏，这意味着我们要尽最大努力在选举日之前争取选票。”“当民主党人扩大比分时，我们不能牺牲在关键州争取选票的大部分机会。鼓励共和党人安全地‘支持你的选票’是保护选票和夺回我们失控政府的唯一途径。”
正如立法者所指出的，新的努力是试图在共和党人中间建立提前投票的热情。
特朗普在整个总统任期内以及在他输掉2020年的竞选后，都指责未经证实的普遍选民欺诈指控，包括毫无根据的指控，即早期和邮寄投票特别容易被滥用。共和党人甚至正在改变他们对第三方选票收集的立场，这在一些州是合法的。
共和党在2022年中期选举中的表现不佳，他们在参议院失去了一个席位，并在预测经济问题和乔·拜登总统不受欢迎的情况下获得巨大收益后，几乎没有推翻众议院，这引发了共和党特工和活动人士的广泛恐慌，导致许多人不情愿地迫使选民通过所有合法手段投票。
活动家查理·柯克说:“我们必须从中期选举中吸取的第一课就是提前投票的力量。”期中考试后发推特。
教会写于2020年这一规则改变为2020年的提前投票，反映了新冠肺炎疫情高峰期的公共卫生问题，相当于“只不过是一场明目张胆的政治权力游戏”
RNC周三表示，他们将在当地部署工作人员和律师，并让投票观察员“观察选举过程的每一步”但麦克丹尼尔在与记者的电话会议上表示，让党内人士继续谈论对欺诈的担忧是无益的。
“这是简单的数学:你想在选举日之前获得尽可能多的选票，”她说。“但如果你的生态系统中有人说‘不要提前投票’或‘不要通过邮件投票’，那肯定是一个挑战。”这些交叉信息确实有影响。我不认为你会看到2024年的到来。我想你看到我们所有人都在唱同一首歌。"
“我们需要选民知道，如果他们提前投票，他们的选票将受到保护，”麦克丹尼尔在新闻发布会上说。
共和党人表示，他们希望RNC的倡议将有助于消除特朗普执政期间蔓延的对提前投票的一些不情愿。
“特朗普导致共和党人放弃了相对于民主党人的一个关键优势——邮寄投票和缺席投票——实际上让共和党人在选举中束手束脚，”共和党策略师、前RNC助手道格·叶禾说。“这一决定解开了手铐，让共和党人可以重新使用它曾经非常好用的策略。”
Republicans launch new effort to boost early voting, breaking with Trump's past criticism
The Republican National Committee on Wednesday launched an effortto increase early-vote turnout in 2024, seeking to curtail a Democratic advantage and to put more distance between the GOP and former President Donald Trump'spast criticism of mail and early ballots.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced "Bank Your Vote," which the party said in a news release will "encourage, educate, and activate Republican voters on when, where, and how to lock in their votes as early as possible, through in-person early voting, absentee voting, and ballot harvesting where legal."
The effort will have voters sign up at BankYourVote.com, triggering digital reminders from the RNC on early voting options. The party will also activate its volunteer network -- which the RNC said has made more than 300 million volunteer door knocks and phone calls in the last two election cycles -- to activate "neighbor-to-neighbor contact to inform and mobilize Republicans."
"To beat Joe Biden and the Democrats in 2024, we must ensure that Republicans bank as many pre-Election Day votes as possible," McDaniel said in a statement. "The RNC is proud to build on our historic efforts from last cycle and work with the entire Republican ecosystem to reach every state. Banking votes early needs to be the focus of every single Republican campaign in the country, and the Republican National Committee will lead the charge."
Early and mail voting have become increasingly prevalent since the onset of COVID-19 but haven't been embraced equally by both major political parties.
According to data compiledby the U.S. Election Project, 33.8% of the early vote in the 2022 midterms came from Republicans, while 42.5% came from Democrats.
In a show of support for the new initiative across the GOP, North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson, the chair of House Republicans' campaign arm, and Steve Daines of Montana, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, appointed Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., to co-chair the effort.
"To take back the White House and Senate and strengthen our House majority in 2024, Republicans must play the game by today's rules, which means maximizing our efforts to bank votes before Election Day," Hagerty said in his own statement. "We cannot afford to sacrifice most of the opportunities to bank votes in key states while Democrats run up the score. Encouraging Republicans to securely 'Bank Your Vote' is the only way to protect the vote and reclaim our out-of-control government."
The new effort, as the lawmakers noted, is an attempt to build up enthusiasm for early voting among Republicans.
Trump throughout his presidency and after he lost the 2020 race railed against unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud -- including baseless allegations that early and mail-in voting is particularly ripe for abuse. Republicans are even changing their stance on third-party ballot collection, which is legal in some states.
The GOP's underperformance in the 2022 midterms, in which they lost a seat in the Senate and only barely flipped the House after predicting massive gains in light of economic issues and President Joe Biden's unpopularity, sparked widespread alarm from Republican operatives and activists, leading many to reluctantly press voters to vote via all methods legally available to them.
"One of the first lessons we have to take from the midterms is the power of early voting," activist Charlie Kirktweeted after the midterms.
Kirkwrote in 2020that rule changes to early voting in 2020, reflecting public health concerns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, amounted to "nothing more than a blatant political power play."
The RNC said Wednesday that they will deploy staff and lawyers on the ground and have poll watchers "observe every step of the election process." But McDaniel suggested on a call with reporters that having party figures continue to sound off on concerns over fraud is unhelpful.
"It's simple math: You want to get as many votes in before Election Day," she said. "But that certainly is a challenge if you have people in your ecosystem saying 'don't vote early' or 'don't vote by mail.' And those cross messages do have an impact. I don't think you're seeing that heading into 2024. I think you're seeing all of us singing from the same song."
"We need voters to know that if they vote early, their vote will be protected," McDaniel said on the press call.
Republicans said they hope the RNC initiative will help undo some of the reluctance to early voting that spread during the Trump years.
"Trump led Republicans to give up one of its key advantages over Democrats -- mail-in voting and the absentee ballot chase -- effectively making Republicans fight with one arm behind their electoral back," said Doug Heye, a GOP strategist and former RNC aide. "This decision takes the cuffs off and allows Republicans to re-use a tactic it had used so well."
