Arizona Early Voting Declines: Republicans Gain, Democrats Lag Behind

Arizona Ballot

Arizona has seen a decline in early voting compared to recent years, with only 51.7% of registered voters voting early – about 300,000 less voters than in the 2020 general election, according to data compiled by Uplift from Arizona county recorder offices.

Most notable is the drop in registered Democrats voting early. In 2020, 36.5% of early voters were Democrats.

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Final Totals: Tennessee’s 2024 Early Voter Turnout Less than 2020

Data published by the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office shows that total voter turnout during the 14-day period of early voting in Tennessee for the November 5 general election was lower than the turnout for early voting in the 2020 general election.

According to the data, 2,280,767 ballots—2,070,339 of which were early-in-person ballots and 210,428 absentee ballots—were recorded during the fourteen days of early voting in 2020.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn Speaks to Reporters After Voting Early in Brentwood

Marsha Blackburn

Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told reporters on Friday she is “confident” in the security of the Volunteer State’s elections after she cast her vote early for the November 5 general election at an early voting polling location in Brentwood.

“We know that in Tennessee, we have the most secure elections in the country and our Secretary of State, Tre Hargett, gets a lot of credit for that. I know Tennesseans are confident they can show up, cast their vote, and that vote’s going to be counted,” Blackburn said.

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Colorado Election Officials Find at Least a Dozen Fraudulent Ballots Cast in 2024 Early Voting

Colorado Fake Ballots

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Thursday announced that at least a dozen mail ballots have been stolen, filled out, and sent in so far in the 2024 general election.

The blue-leaning state has been sending mail-in ballots to every registered voter for years, and has served as an example for other liberal states during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to NBC News. 

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Wisconsin Early Voting Delayed by Label Printing Issues

Voting Booth

Early voting in Wisconsin has been delayed due to label printing problems, causing voters to wait hours in line to vote in some cases.

The state began early voting on Tuesday, with voters waiting up to three hours to cast ballots in West Bend, a city 40 miles northwest of Milwaukee with a population of about 32,000, The Washington Post reported. After state election officials said late Tuesday that the computer issues causing the label printing problems were resolved, they acknowledged on Wednesday that they had occurred again. Voters waited about 90 minutes to vote on Wednesday.

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Trump Leading Harris in Georgia Two Weeks Before Election Day, Poll Finds

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris

Former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia as election day draws closer, according to a Tuesday poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC).

Trump is leading at 47% while Harris is at 43%, which is outside of the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, according to the AJC. Of likely voters that were polled, 8% said that they are still undecided.

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Trump Urges Georgians to Vote Early amid Record Breaking Turnout, Hand-Count Ruling

People Voting

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night urged Georgia residents to turn their ballots in early, after the state counted a record-breaking 300,000 votes cast during the first day of early voting and a state court blocked a hand-counting ballot rule. 

Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling confirmed the number in a social media post, saying the number was “123% higher than the old record for the 1st day of voting.” Tuesday was the first day of in-person early voting in the Southern state, and the first day voters could return absentee ballots. 

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U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn Urges Tennesseans to Vote Early

Marsha Blackburn

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is urging Tennesseans to cast their votes in the November 5 general election by taking advantage of early in-person voting.

Blackburn, who faces Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) on the general election ballot, said she is hoping for a “big margin” in her race and for Tennesseans to vote for former President Donald Trump and local candidates.

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Analysis: After 2020 Election Debacle, Vast Majority of Americans Support Laws to Prevent Voter Fraud

A little-covered survey about how Americans view voter fraud was released from YouGov this week, and the results are distinct. Americans broadly support a multitude of measures aimed at reducing voter fraud after highly questionable ballot processing and election day issues called the 2020 election results into question.

According to the survey, three-quarters of Americans (75 percent) support requiring a photo ID to vote, and nearly the same amount (74 percent) support requiring proof citizenship to vote.

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Ballot Drop Box Battles: States, Municipalities Seek to Ban Them as November Election Nears

Drop Box Sign

Two months out from Election Day and less than two weeks before early voting begins, states and municipalities are fighting over whether to implement ballot drop boxes, amid election integrity and practical concerns.

Ballot drop boxes, a method of voting that became more widespread during the 2020 presidential election as COVID-19 lockdowns continued, are facing a pushback in several municipalities and states ahead of the November election.

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Early and Mail-In Voting Begins Two Months Before Election Day amid Lawsuits, Integrity Concerns

People Voting

Absentee voting for the presidential election will begin this week, two months before Election Day, as early in-person voting starts nationwide later this month amid lawsuits over election administration and election integrity concerns.

The presidential election begins this week as absentee ballots are mailed to voters in one state, with others to follow in the coming weeks. However, election integrity concerns from the last presidential election remain as various courts determine how mail-in ballots and voter rolls are to be handled with only two months before the next president will be elected.

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Progressive Group May Be Illegally Releasing the Results of How Many Republicans v. Democrats Have Already Early Voted in Arizona

A progressive organization called Uplift Campaigns is posting daily updated information on how many Republicans versus Democrats have turned in early ballots all around Arizona. However, A.R.S. 16-551(C) makes it a felony to release any results from early voting before Election Day.

That statute provides in part, “Partial or complete tallies of the early election board shall not be released or divulged before all precincts have reported or one hour after the closing of the polls on election day, whichever occurs first. Any person who unlawfully releases information regarding vote tallies or who possesses a tally sheet or summary without authorization from the recorder or officer in charge of elections is guilty of a class 6 felony.”

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Commentary: The Economics of Early Voting

After the recent assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, some think the race is Trump’s to lose. I tend to agree that the race is in some ways Trump’s to lose, while at the same time feel very strongly that the left is not going to simply roll over and give up on trying to keep Trump from a second term.

So it’s important to not be over-exuberant; Trump is absolutely riding high right now, from the debacle of a debate for Biden to Judge Cannon dismissing the Jack Smith documents case to surviving an assassination attempt. But the right needs to focus on what takes place between now and November 5th, specifically on how every Republican and conservative can help Trump win by doing one simple thing: casting your ballot early.

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Pima County Election Records Show Chain-of-Custody Problems for over 18,000 Absentee Ballots in 2022 Election: Study

A new report obtained by The Arizona Sun Times found that more than 18,000 absentee ballots counted in the 2022 election in Pima County alone had severely lacking or no chain-of-custody paperwork, meaning there is an inadequate record of the whereabouts or origins of the Tucson-area ballots.

Coincidentally in the same election cycle, Katie Hobbs edged out Kari Lake for the Governor’s office by just 17,117 votes.

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Trump Expands Push for GOP Embrace of Early and Mail-In Voting

Mail in Ballot

The 2020 presidential election witnessed a nationwide surge in the prevalence of early voting and vote-by-mail practices, which featured heavily in former President Donald Trump’s claims that mass election fraud influenced the outcome. According to the Pew Research Center, 46% of voters in the 2020 race voted by absentee or mail-in ballot, and 27% reported having voted early.

Republicans were subsequently reluctant to embrace such practices, though a lackluster midterm performance and the about-face of the presumptive GOP nominee on the matter appears to have the Republicans rethinking their approach.

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Conservative Group Announces Seven-Figure Early Vote Push in Ohio and Endorses Bernie Moreno for Senate

Bernie Moreno and Sherrod Brown

The conservative Sentinel Action Fund (SAF) announced on Wednesday its first seven-figure investment in Ohio to encourage early voting, and endorsed Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, the Daily Caller News Foundation first learned.

SAF’s announcement is the first of multiple seven-figure investments it plans to make in Ohio this cycle, with the super PAC also launching a “Skip The Line Ohio” website urging Republicans to request and return their absentee ballot, according to the group. Moreno secured the GOP Senate nomination in March, beating out two other prominent Republicans to take on longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.

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GOP State Senator May Be Holding Up Arizona Legislature from Sending Election Integrity Measure to Ballot

Ken Bennett

The Arizona Legislature is considering sending an election integrity measure to the ballot this fall.

HCR 2056 was debated in the Senate Elections Committee last week. The bill would require voters to show photo ID when dropping ballots off. All early ballots dropped off will be tabulated at the voting location where they were submitted. Seven counties already do that. The bill also prohibits election officials from accepting funds from foreign entities to help administer an election.

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Conservative Groups Forge Early Voting Coalition Built Around New Unity Pledge

In the hotel where Abraham Lincoln kicked off his Civil War presidency, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. refined his most famous speech, dozens of organizations gathered this week with a common goal: to forge a historic coalition that would catapult conservatives to the forefront of early voting and election lawfare and expand their movement to Hispanics, Asians, union workers, and African-Americans fleeing the Democratic Party.

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Ohio Republican Party Urges Voters to Bank Their Vote Ahead of Primary Election

People Voting

The Ohio Republican Party is urging GOP voters in the Buckeye State to participate in the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) new nationwide campaign focused on maximizing pre-Election Day voting.

The RNC’s Bank Your Vote campaign was created last year to “encourage, educate, and activate Republican voters on when, where, and how to lock in their votes as early as possible, through in-person early voting, absentee voting, and ballot harvesting where legal.”

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In Battle for Control of Virginia Legislature, Republicans Test New Commitment to Early Voting

Early voting has become a central issue in the Virginia legislature election, which is set to conclude on Tuesday and determine whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin will have a Republican majority to pass legislation.

The state Senate is currently controlled by Democrats, 22-18, with the state House controlled by Republicans, after winning 52 seats in 2021 to Democrats’ 48, according to Ballotpedia. Republicans gained control of the state House in 2021, when Youngkin won the governorship, Winsome Earle-Sears won the election for lieutenant governor, and Jason Miyares won the attorney general race.

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Elections Expert Gina Swoboda Discusses Maricopa County Officials’ Missteps in the 2022 Election

Gina Swoboda, executive director of Phoenix-based Voter Reference Foundation (VRF) discussed election problems and what to do about them recently on the Jenny Beth Show. Jenny Beth Martin was an early leader in the Tea Party movement as co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. In this third part of a three-part series from the interview, Swoboda delved deeper into the problems that occurred during the 2022 election, many which were caused or exacerbated by election officials, and the hurdles to fixing them.

She observed that switching from precinct voting to vote centers did not increase turnout as election officials claimed it would, which they did in order to convince voters the switch would be beneficial. Republican legislators ran bills that would have made precinct voting easier, she said, like holding voting on a school holiday so the schools could be used as voting locations, but the bills were unsuccessful. 

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Connecticut Gov. Lamont Signs Bill Authorizing Early Voting

Connecticut has become the latest state to authorize early voting in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic under a bill signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday. 

The measure, which cleared the state Legislature last week, authorizes a 14-day early voting period for general elections, a seven-day period for primaries, and a four-day early voting period for special elections and presidential primaries. 

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Connecticut Lawmakers Approve Early Voting

Connecticut voters would get up to two weeks early voting ahead of federal and state elections under a proposal headed for Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for consideration.

The legislation, which passed the Democratic-controlled state Senate Tuesday on a 27-7 vote, authorizes a 14-day early voting period for general elections, a seven-day period for primaries, and a four-day early voting period for special elections and presidential primaries. Lamont has pledged to sign the bill, which the House previously approved.

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Connecticut’s Early Voting Costs Could Top $9 Million

Early Voting

Connecticut’s embrace of early voting will make it more convenient for millions to cast a ballot, but comes with a hefty price tag for the state and local governments.

That’s according to a new report by the state’s Office of Fiscal Analysis, which determined the move could cost from $6.9 million to $9.2 million over the next several years, depending on how many days of early voting are offered. 

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Early Voting Begins in Battleground Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court Election

Early voting has begun in Wisconsin for the state’s High Court, and this election becomes the most important decision of 2023, with ramifications far beyond the Badger state, and into 2024.

Tested constitutionalist Daniel Kelly seeks to rejoin the state Supreme Court in Madison. Kelly is an unabashed conservative, but also a careful, balanced, and restrained jurist who does not legislate from the bench or engage in partisan power grabs.

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Democrats’ ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ Myth Debunked Again as Early Voting in Georgia Runoff Tops 1 Million

For James Newton, an African American voter in Atlanta, early voting is a tough sell.   

“I always vote on Election Day. I like the excitement of it,” Newton told The Daily Signal after voting at a church on Election Day in November. “For me, it’s like showing up to a ballgame. You want all the final, last portions of the game, like overtime, so to speak.”

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