GOP is fighting mail-in voting — but Republican voters want it by a huge margin

Joan McCarter
and
Daily Kos
09 April 2020

Donald Trump says "Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting." He means fight against it, because "for whatever reason,  doesn't work out well for Republicans." He's just not capable of not saying the quiet part out loud. Unlike Trump, however, 65% of Republican voters want to vote by mail this fall.

They join 79% of Democrats in believing that mail-in ballots should be required this fall, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday of this week, while the Wisconsin primary debacle was unfolding. No one wants to be forced to vote like those Wisconsinites were, risking their lives to exercise their right to vote during a global pandemic.

In further bad news for Trump, just 42% say they approve of Trump's handling of the coronavirus crisis—down a full 6 points in just the past week, from the same pollster. But securing our votes isn't a partisan issue, or at least shouldn't be. When it's cast as having to risk your life in order to vote, that shakes out a lot of the Republican noise about voter fraud and other nonsense.

Now, it's early on in this specific debate, so that is definitely like to change if Trump decides to take up the cause more consistently. He and Fox News have got his team convinced that the COVID-19 crisis is over because of his masterful leadership, and if he could make them believe that, they'll fall for anything. That includes the idea that it's perfectly safe for them to hang out with a whole bunch of other people in a church basement or elementary school gym, using the same pens and voting booths that dozens or hundreds of other people have touched—during an epidemic.