Republican group launches ads urging GOP senators to fund mail-in and absentee voting
A Republican group pushing for expanded voting options amid the coronavirus pandemic launched a $750,000 advertising campaign on Wednesday urging GOP senators in ten states to pass legislation funding stronger election safety measures.
Republicans for the Rule of Law, a project of the anti-Trump group Defending Democracy Together, has purchased three weeks of ads on national news networks and Facebook that call on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to provide states with additional election assistance money in the next coronavirus relief bill.
The issue ads that address Republican senators by name will run on Facebook and Fox News. The ten narrated ads are identical, except for the call to action for specific senators, and promote mail-in voting, absentee voting and other expanded voting options, in the context of the coronavirus.
“This entire election is going to look different than ones previous,” said Sarah Longwell, executive director of the group. “Fewer people are going to go to the polls. More people are going to vote absentee.”
McConnell’s home state of Kentucky is a top target of the ads, as are North Carolina and Missouri. Republicans for the Rule of Law will spend $50,000 each in all three states.
The group will lobby vulnerable Sen. Thom Tillis, who is up for reelection this year in North Carolina. Ads in Missouri will mention Sen. Roy Blunt, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.
Federal health officials have warned about another wave of the coronavirus in the fall that could be worse, Longwell noted.
States will have to provide poll workers, who tend to be retirees, and ballot counters with personal protective equipment, she said. Those volunteers may also need special training.
Longwell’s group is not using its ads to advocate for a specific amount of money, but she pointed to a $4 billion proposal that the liberal Brennan Center for Justice published in April as an example of a desirable appropriation.
House Democrats released a bill Tuesday that includes a proposed $3.6 billion for “contingency planning, preparation, and resilience of elections” that states would have the option to put toward remote voting and safety measures.
Neither the White House nor spokespersons for Sens. Tillis and Blunt commented on a possible election security provision. An aide to McConnell noted that a previous coronavirus rescue package contained $400 million for states to use for elections.
North Carolina’s State Board of Elections is considering an all mail-in ballot election. Vote by mail in the state is at less than 5% currently, but it is projected to increase by as much as 40%, the board’s executive director has said. The election board is pushing the state to provide $2 million more for expanded voting and election safety measures.
There is no voting by mail in Missouri, except for a limited list of approved reasons to request an absentee ballot. Fear of contracting the coronavirus isn’t currently one of them. For Missouri to use federal money to expand mail-in voting, the state would likely have to change its election law.
Blunt, a former Missouri secretary of state, told the Kansas City Star previously that he is open to giving more money to states to run their elections during the pandemic, but he is against requiring them to use it in a specific way such as expanding vote-by-mail options.
“We need to ensure that state and local election officials have the resources they need to address the unique challenges they face as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. We provided significant election-related funding in the CARES Act and we will continue looking at what state and local needs are as we move forward,” Blunt said in a statement to McClatchy.
“We will not let Democrats exploit this public health emergency to expand the reach of the federal government into state and local elections as they have tried and failed to do for years,” he said.
Republicans for the Rule of Law are also running ads in Arizona, Alabama, Iowa, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine and Oklahoma. Those ads will also run on Fox News and Facebook and will spend various amounts within the allotted $750,000, the group said.
The ad focusing on McConnell is airing nationally on Fox, MSNBC, CNN and Sinclair-owned channels, as well as statewide in Kentucky, where the leading Republican senator is up for reelection this November.
In some states, the Republican Party has emphasized vote-by-mail amid the coronavirus to turn out support for candidates. Longwell said her group’s campaign seeks to expand options and build the infrastructure.
A survey conducted in April by one of President Trump’s campaign pollsters found that 76 percent of Americans want every eligible voter to have the ability to cast an absentee ballot.
President Trump has said multiple times since the nation went into the coronavirus lockdown that he does not favor vote-by-mail because he is worried that ballots will be manipulated.
“People cheat. Mail ballots are a very dangerous thing for this country, because they’re cheaters,” he said at an April 7 press briefing. “They’re fraudulent in many cases.”
Longwell dismissed those concerns, which she said are not backed up with evidence.
“The president can be opposed, but the fact is more people are going to vote by mail and absentee. They just are, unless the pandemic is gone,” she said. “That’s just a reality.”
Kansas City Star reporter Bryan Lowry and Charlotte Observer reporter Brian Murphy contributed reporting.
Updated to include a statement from Sen. Blunt and reflect that the ads have launched..
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Republican group launches ads urging GOP senators to fund mail-in and absentee voting."
