Trump’s inconsistent message clashes with RNC’s attempt to embrace early voting

At nearly every Donald Trump rally, written words encouraging early voting are loaded into the teleprompter. But those words rarely match the message the former president delivers to his audience.

The Republican National Committee has embraced early voting in 2024. Trump has promoted it in tapes released by the Republican Party at its convention and in ads distributed across the country, as well as in copies of his prepared speeches at rallies. But live and on the ground, Trump’s tone on the subject has remained inconsistent, often deviating from the remarks and instead sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the early voting process, confusing Republican voters — and potentially hampering the party’s efforts to win votes this fall.

“They have early voting, they have late voting, it’s all so ridiculous,” Trump said on stage in Palm Beach, Florida, in July. “We should have one-day voting, paper ballots, voter ID, and certification of citizenship. And that’s what we’re striving for.”

Meanwhile, Trump-appointed RNC leaders, Chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, have crisscrossed the country on a “protect the vote” tour aimed at promoting election integrity. A major part of their advocacy: promoting the importance of early voting.

“President Trump’s message is very clear. This is a good thing if you want to vote early,” Whatley said during a tour stop in Tampa, Florida, this summer. “This is a good thing if you want to vote by mail,” he continued.

That same day, Trump gave a contradictory answer when asked about early voting in an interview: “Any time you have mail-in voting, you’re going to have fraud and some people don’t like me to say it, but I say it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News.

In fact, state election officials have noted that voter fraud is rare and that states that use mail-in voting have many safeguards in place to prevent mail-in ballots from being misused.

Trump doesn’t always dismiss early voting and mail-in voting in these terms. He voted early this month in his home state of Florida and posted a TikTok video encouraging people to vote early. He also occasionally delivers a prepared remark directly encouraging early voting without expressing skepticism about the practice.

“Throughout this election cycle, President Trump, the RNC and our campaign have been clear with voters: Vote early,” Trump national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

However, the inconsistency of Trump’s early messages on voting has led many of his supporters to cynicism and confusion around the issue.

“I don’t think there should be early voting,” Bob Breneman, a Trump supporter from Pennsylvania, said in an interview. “I think there should be photo-by-photo voting, to be honest with you. Because that would eliminate a lot of the cheating that’s going on,” he said.

Another Trump supporter, Susan Anderson of Nevada, said: “I think same-day voting is a good idea because it makes the process more honest.”

Then, when asked how she would vote, Anderson said, “We would do whatever we want, and usually that’s early voting.”

The RNC’s “Protect the Vote” tour hit key swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia this summer, often reinforcing early voting as an effective option for their Republican audiences.

“We have an outreach effort in place – let’s call it a nationwide early voting program,” Whatley said at one of the events.

Despite the RNC’s efforts, the dozens of Trump supporters in key states NBC spoke to consistently echoed their party leader’s hesitation.

“I think we should just vote the same day, with paper ballots, that’s what I think,” said Trump supporter Troy Mattson. “That’s the only way to do it. We need to get back to that.”

Early voting is a method of voting that proponents say can increase the likelihood of voter turnout. In the United States, all 50 states and Washington, D.C. allow early voting by mail or in person, and 35 states plus D.C. allow early voting without an excuse.

But Trump has polarized an issue that once enjoyed more egalitarian support across the political spectrum and has long played out in Republican-leaning states.

This year, just 37% of Republicans say people should be able to vote early without giving a reason, according to a May poll by the Pew Research Center. That number stands in stark contrast to Democrats’ 82% support. While Democrats’ numbers have not budged in six years, Republican support has fallen nearly 20 points in that span, according to Pew.

In 2020, although Covid-19 had a significant impact on many people’s voting, Biden voters were nearly twice as likely as Trump supporters to vote by mail, according to Pew research.