GOP worried about early surge in dem voting in bat
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Game over, Trumpanzees.
https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Early-su...607367.php
Democratic voters who have requested mail ballots - and returned them - greatly outnumber Republicans so far in key battleground states, causing alarm among GOP party leaders and strategists that President Donald Trump's attacks on mail voting could be hurting the party's prospects to retain the White House and the Senate this year.
Of the more than 9 million voters who requested mail ballots through Monday in Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maine and Iowa, the five battleground states where such data is publicly available, 52% were Democrats. Twenty-eight percent were Republicans and 20% were unaffiliated.
Even more alarming to some Republicans, Democrats are also returning their ballots at higher rates than GOP voters in two of those states where that information is available: Florida and North Carolina.
The wide Democratic lead in mail voting so far has been the subject of urgent discussions among top GOP officials, according to people familiar with the conversations.
The margins are "stunning" - and bad news for Republicans up and down the ballot, said longtime GOP pollster Whit Ayers. While the Republican Party is focused on getting voters out on Election Day, he noted that older voters who have traditionally supported Republicans are most concerned about covid-19 infection and could choose to stay home if an outbreak arises as the election nears.
The trend has emerged after Trump has spent months assailing voting by mail, making unsubstantiated claims that it is prone to corruption and fraud - attacks that have resonated with Republican voters, polls show.
State and local Republicans, fearful of losing what has long been a key turnout advantage for the GOP, spent the last few months racing to reassure voters that mail voting was safe, despite the president's rhetoric.
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