\n\n“Across the country, the GOP\u2019s disappointing midterm results have kicked off hand-wringing about the party\u2019s attitude toward early voting and mail ballots. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley \u2014 both potential 2024 GOP presidential candidates \u2014 have said recently that Republicans can\u2019t simply ignore the voting mechanisms Democrats have taken advantage of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the about-face is particularly striking in Pennsylvania, where Republicans have adopted an especially uncompromising approach to mail-in voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though nearly every Republican state legislator backed a 2019 law legalizing no-excuse mail voting<\/a>, GOP officials changed their tune in the 2020 presidential election, when then-President Donald Trump repeatedly and forcefully bashed vote-by-mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their criticism of the method continued from there. Pennsylvania Republicans attacked Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf<\/a> and the state\u2019s top election official<\/a> for the way they implemented the 2019 mail voting law. They lambasted court rulings on the procedure<\/a>, including those that enabled the use of drop boxes and allowed mail ballots to be received up to three days after the 2020 election as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2022 Pennsylvania GOP\u2019s gubernatorial nominee, Doug Mastriano, pledged during his campaign to eliminate no-excuse mail-in voting<\/a> and led the movement to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the state. Republican state lawmakers filed a lawsuit that attempted to toss out the very vote-by-mail law they helped pass<\/a>. Republican Jake Corman, the retiring state Senate President Pro Tempore, said mail voting should be ended<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the blue wave that hit Pennsylvania in 2022 \u2014 in which Republicans lost key races for governor, Senate, House and the state legislature \u2014 is forcing the GOP to reassess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRepublicans focus on Election Day turnout and Democrats started a month ahead of time,\u201d said former Rep. Lou Barletta, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in the GOP primary this year. \u201cIf we want to win, if Republicans want to win, they got to get better at\u201d mail voting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n