I know, I know. Early voting is supposed to save us. For the last several months of the GOP Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort, we've heard nothing but that steady drumbeat. Please understand me; I'm not trying to be Debbie Downer. I believe early voting is a valuable and positive step in the right direction for our side.
But hear me out: What if early voting is also a step to the Democrats' advantage?
Here's the thing: If I were the Democrats, I'd appreciate the Republicans voting early because that would tell me exactly how many votes I need to beat them. Most states post running daily tallies of early voting online. Those totals, combined with other publicly available election data points such as the past totals of returned ballots of likely voters, would give me a pretty good, if not general, idea of how many Democrat voters need to be cajoled into voting on Election Day.
And if I were a Democrat comfortable with causing a smidge of "election irregularity," I might also appreciate the heads-up on just how many buses full of totally legitimate, no-ID-having, non-English-speaking, first-time voters I should prepare or how many identically filled-out ballots to dump in the official ballot boxes overnight on Tuesday evening.
And what if the GOP GOTV push for early voting did nothing but simply move the high-propensity Republican voters to vote earlier? Those voters were going to vote anyway. Have we done enough to bring more and new voters to our side? Yes, we have registered more Republican voters than we did in 2020; however, the question remains: Does the GOP have a robust enough plan to chase those ballots OR motivate all those low-propensity first-time registered voters to actually go to the polls and vote? Let's hope so.
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As an example, GOP activist Scott Pressler has done an outstanding job registering Republicans in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. However, according to a text obtained by PJMedia, Pressler said that as of Monday afternoon, a whopping "199,619 Republican ballots remain outstanding" in the Keystone state. To put that in perspective, Pennsylvania has over 13 million residents but was decided by a mere 80,000 votes in 2020. Will those nearly 200,000 Republicans turn in their ballots by 8 p.m. ET tomorrow? Let's hope so.
But what-ifs and hope won't save this election for the GOP. Action will.
Each of us, as we are able, must urge our friends and family members who haven't yet voted to get out and vote tomorrow. Offer to help them decipher the props and candidates. Offer to drive them to their polling place. There is simply no valid excuse (beyond death or significant debilitating illness) not to vote in 2024. Not voting isn't an option. Not voting is a vote for the Democrats.
Better still, we must volunteer our time and talents to chase those outstanding ballots in our home states. No matter who the polls and the crooked MSM claim is winning this election, don't believe them. 270 is the only number that matters: The candidate who reaches 270+ delegates wins. With Republican voter numbers too big to rig, we can do just that. Let's do this, America.
