Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

Supreme Court Decides: Now Republicans Need To Double Down On Mail-In Voting

Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour

This month, the Supreme Court ruled to block President Donald Trump’s plan to implement his landmark U.S. Postal Service mail-in ballot election security rules.

I, like most rational Americans, think that decision is absurd, because in what world would we not want to ensure that our elections are safe and secure? While this is far from the end of this debate, for now, there’s not a lot we can do about it. But what we can do is leverage mail-in voting to reduce or eliminate the historical advantage it has provided to Democrats over the last several decades.

This is something I’ve advocated for years. I personally despise the practice and believe it should be eliminated, but at the same time, it would be foolish not to utilize mail-in voting while it exists. I take a pragmatic, or even Machiavellian approach here. There’s nothing altruistic about intentionally handicapping our side out of a misguided sense of a self-perceived moral high ground.

Our opponents are using this tactic every single election cycle, and it’s currently legal, so ignoring it is nothing more than political grandstanding, and that is costing us elections all over the country every year.

We can see the political and societal impact first hand, and the outcome has been disastrous for patriotic Americans.

So here’s my proposal:

First, every Republican needs to go all in on mail-in voting when it comes to targeting aligned voters who have a history of not showing up to vote. We need to get enthusiastic, vocal, and organized to turn out the vote. We need to educate voters, both on the issues and on what’s at stake here. We need to motivate them to get to the polls to cast their votes. And we need to utilize mail-in voting to earn votes from citizens who otherwise may not show up to vote.

This is how we turn the tide.

Republicans tend to do well with in-person voting, which is why we typically surge on election day, but because Democrats rely more heavily on mail-in voting, they tend to surge hours, days, or even weeks after that. Now, I won’t be naive and pretend that this is purely due to legitimate votes—we’ve already seen extensive voter fraud with mail-in voting. And I’m not talking about hypothetical scenarios or allegations. I’m talking about documented examples resulting in convictions, case after case after case. But that’s a conversation for another day. Yes, it’s a serious problem, and yes, it absolutely needs to be addressed, but in the meantime we have battles we must fight.

Right now, our focus needs to be on winning elections — both the midterms and the smaller but equally important elections at all levels of government across the country. 

I’ve talked frequently about the blueprint for achieving that, both in my book Run Right, and in many of my articles here. We need to get organized to drive voters to the polls. That means talking to our families, friends, and communities in person and on social media about the issues and the candidates. They need to understand the difference between the candidates with absolute clarity. More importantly, they need to understand precisely what’s at stake if the Democrats win. But we can’t stop there, and unfortunately, this is exactly where Republicans typically stop, and that’s why we lose elections.

The missing step is organizing.

From that perspective, we need to stay on top of the people in our network. People are busier than ever, so it’s easy to get distracted. People might have every intention of showing up to vote, but life happens. Maybe a family issue comes up, or they’re facing a business emergency. Maybe they’ve just overextended their schedule. Whatever the challenge is, it can easily prevent them from voting, especially if they feel like there’s little chance of winning anyway. So we have to make it as easy as possible for them.

This might mean calling regularly leading up to the election to make sure they still plan on voting. It might mean organizing a carpool to the polls so all they have to do is show up. But the most impactful approach, and one that the Supreme Court’s recent decision makes essential, is helping our fellow Republicans with the process to request and obtain a mail-in ballot. You could even legally walk them through their ballot to simplify the process for them. 

This is exactly what the Democrats are doing, and we need to match or exceed their efforts if we expect to win.

Cliff Maloney is the CEO of Citizens Alliance and the author of Run Right: A Complete Election Playbook to Win. You can follow him @maloney on X.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.