Republicans learned to ballot harvest

After the steal, I said learn to ballot harvest.

Republicans did.

They did their ballot harvesting legally and in front of the entire world. There were no midnight dumps of ballots from California into unattended ballot boxes. Vote tabulations did not suddenly change in the wee hours of the morning. Republicans read the rules, learned the rules and applied the rules in new ways.

Trump urged voters to vote early — to bank their votes as they say. Republican voters did. According to the New York Times, in 9 states more than half the ballots cast were cast before Election Day either by mail or in-person.

Trump won 8 of those 9 states, including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, which were four of the seven swing states. The effort in North Carolina likely saved the state for Trump because of the extent of damage to western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene.

Republicans began their harvest by signing up people to vote. Scott Presler became the Johnny Appleseed of voter registration, setting up shop in Pennsylvania where some trees from the seeds Appleseed sowed still bear fruit.

The Express Tribune called him an unsung hero, but Donald Trump knows who he is as do millions of us MAGAts.

But Presler did more than doggedly pursue people to register to vote.

The story said, “By connecting with Amish voters and emphasizing local issues, Presler is widely credited by Trump supporters as a key figure in helping secure Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes — pivotal in Trump’s anticipated return to the White House.”

Ah yes, the Amish. They drove their horse and buggies to the polls in, well, droves.

Just before the election, AP noticed this, and reported, “Researchers say most of the Amish don’t register to vote, reflective of the Christian movement’s historic separatism from mainstream society, just as they’ve maintained their dialect and horse-and-buggy transportation.

“But a small minority have voted, and the Amish are most numerous in the all-important swing state of Pennsylvania. So they’re being targeted this year in the latest of decades of efforts to register more of them to vote.

“Republicans are seeking their votes through billboards, ads, door-to-door canvassing and community meetings. Republican campaigners see the Amish as receptive to GOP talking points — smaller government, less regulation, religious freedom.”

The votes were there for the taking because of federal government overreach. God gave us many rights. Sometimes my favorite is the right to be left alone.

Another group Republicans tapped into were hunters and other gun owners. They too just want to be left alone. Surprisingly 10 million of them were not registered to vote, according to the American Hunter in August.

Its story said, “States with the most sportsmen not yet registered to vote in the upcoming Presidential election include Pennsylvania, with 515,277 and roughly a half million each in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin. The states with the fewest number of unregistered sportsmen and women are Arizona at 133,000, Nevada with 59,173 and Montana, 52,233.

“Election Day falls during the height of hunting seasons in many states, but sportsmen who act fast can qualify to cast their ballots absentee when they can’t make it to the polls. The Vote4America website offers a number of convenient links to register, check registration and more. It’s free and using its resources doesn’t require enrolling in another mailing list. Agreeing to its terms of service, however, is.”

Democrats did try to get the hunter vote by nominating Elmer Fudd for vice president. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t even load his shotgun.

(Oh how I hated that dog in the 1980s.)

Early voting dropped off sharply this year compared to 2020 — for Democrats. Republicans however did better.

CNN reported, “Republicans have made up more of the pre-election vote than they did in 2020. The Trump campaign made more of an effort this year to encourage Republicans to vote early and by mail, a major shift from messaging against pre-election voting in 2020.

“Across the 27 states for which Catalist has comparable data, registered Democrats have cast 37% of pre-election ballots, while registered Republicans have cast 35%. That’s a significant tightening in the partisan gap since 2020, when, at the same point and in the same states, registered Democrats held a 12-percentage point lead — 42% to 30%.”

So a 12-point advantage for Democrats melted down to just 2 points.

The story also said, “In four of the seven key states that will likely decide the presidential election, voters register by party, and in every one of them, Republicans have made up a larger share of the pre-election vote than they did at the same time four years ago. Democrats in these states have overall decreased their share compared with 2020.

“In Arizona, 41% of pre-election voters have been Republican, a 4-point increase from 2020. Democrats have made up a share that’s 3 points less than it was four years ago, at 33%.”

So in Arizona, Republicans turned a 1 point advantage into 8 points. That’s good to know. And their efforts helped return Arizona back to the Republican fold.

Early voting flipped Nevada red in a presidential race for the first time in 20 years. Don’t get me wrong. Trump’s promise to end taxes on tips helped win votes in Las Vegas. Policy matters, but don’t discount the importance of the mechanics of an election.

In May, NBC derided the party, saying, “After years of railing against the practice of collecting and delivering other voters’ ballots, Republicans are vowing to mount their own ballot harvesting operation ahead of the 2024 presidential election.”

Given the Republican success on Tuesday, look for more success tomorrow. Presler has moved to Pennsylvania and has great plans for the Keystone State.

He told Benny Johnson, “We are not stopping for a second. I am more emboldened than ever and my goal is to ‘Florida’ Pennsylvania within the next few years.”

That is a well-earned nod to Ron DeSantis, an amazing man.

The world has changed. Get Out The Vote efforts have changed as well. GOTV no longer is just on Election Day but for an entire month or more. Adapt or die. Republicans chose to adapt.