With former President Donald Trump’s encouragement, Republicans are voting early again, flocking to the polls for in-person voting ahead of Election Day and helping break records for ballots cast before November in key states like Georgia and North Carolina.
The GOP hopes this will fix a mechanical problem that some in the party blame for costing it the 2020 presidential and key 2022 elections. Campaigns usually want their voters to cast ballots ahead of Election Day so they can focus their resources on getting more marginal supporters to the polls at the last minute.
Republicans excelled at that before Trump turned against mail voting in 2020, spinning wild conspiracies about the centuries-old process and convincing his supporters to wait until Election Day to cast their ballots. But the party is again pushing its voters to cast their ballots early, and the former president is largely encouraging the change, with a conspiratorial pitch.
It’s unclear what this means for the election, however. The early vote data only reveals whether voters are registered with a party, not who they are voting for. The early electorate can change from day to day as more and more people vote early. And what seem like demographic trends in early vote can suddenly disappear once Election Day votes are factored in.
