Why Democrats have soured on mail-in voting: Carney

Democrats’ preferred voting method appears to be shifting from mail-in to in-person, partly due to concerns about ballot harvesting. — Image credit: Getty Images

Over 4 million Georgians voted early in the U.S. 2024 presidential election, including a significantly higher number of Republicans than in 2016 or 2020, and many of them chose to do so by mail. The Georgia secretary of state’s office said that this early voting was unprecedented, representing 56% of all registered Georgia voters and marking an increase of 1.5 million more early voters than in 2020.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Tim Carney explains this shift in Republican voting patterns and why Democrats might be moving from mail-in voting to in-person options.

Be the first to know when the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) publishes a new opinion! Download the Straight Arrow News app and enable push notifications today!

The following is an excerpt from the above video:

A few years ago, Democrats convinced the news media and corporate America that Georgia’s election law would disenfranchise millions of Americans. One major complaint against the law was that it slightly curtailed mail-in voting and took steps to preserve the secrecy of mail-in ballots and prevent ballot harvesting. Democrats argued that every state should automatically send ballots to every voter, and there was absolutely nothing wrong if some voters got assistance with their mail-in ballots. Worries about fraud, vote harvesting, or coercion were misinformation, we were told. Congressional Democrats, after the 2020 election, even proposed a bill to legalize ballot harvesting nationwide.

Nowadays, though, it looks like Democrats are becoming less and less happy about mail-in ballots. Kamala Harris’ closing argument rests on the premise that married women will feel undue pressure from their husbands to vote for Donald Trump. The Harris ad on this issue posits that the voting booth is “the only place in America where women still have the right to choose.” If Democrats believe all this, why are they insistent on decreasing in-person voting at the ballot box in favor of mail-in voting? And why are they weakening the few privacy safeguards for mail-in voting in order to facilitate ballot harvesting?

A few years ago, Democrats convinced the news media and corporate America that Georgia’s election law would disenfranchise millions of Americans. One major complaint against the law was that it slightly curtailed mail in voting and took steps to preserve the secrecy of mail in ballots and prevent ballot harvesting. Democrats argued that every state should automatically send ballots to every voter, and there was absolutely nothing wrong if some voters got assistance with their mail in ballots. Worries about fraud vote harvesting or coercion were misinformation. We were told congressional Democrats, after the 2020 election, even proposed the bill to legalize ballot harvesting nationwide. Nowadays, though, it looks like Democrats are becoming less and less happy about mail in ballots. Kamala Harris’s closing argument rests on the premise that married women will feel undue pressure from their husbands to vote for Donald Trump. The Harris ad on this issue posits that the voting booth is, quote, the only place in America where women still have the right to choose. If Democrats believe all this, why are they insistent on decreasing in person voting at the ballot box in favor of mail in voting. And why are they weakening the few privacy safeguards for mail in voting in order to facilitate ballot harvesting in Michigan, I spoke to plenty of liberal voters who were worried about mail in ballots, citing the risk of harvesting. Hamtramck is a small city that is totally surrounded by Detroit. The population is about 50% Muslim, mostly families from Yemen. In the most recent election, Hamtramck elected a 100% Muslim city council, a city council that was much more conservative socially than the average white liberal in the town. I spent a few days in Hamtramck talking to all sorts of residents. The white liberal voters complained about the Muslim population harvesting ballots. They argued that the Muslim takeover of city council only happened because of a ballot harvesting operation stemming from quote, the Imams. Republicans used to be the ones worried about ballot harvesting, in part because Democrats controlled the labor unions, and in part because Democrats relied on low propensity voters who might need some ballot assistance to actually vote. Now the tables have turned on that latter score, and so the parties might just switch sides on mail in voting.