Texas Weekly Online

Republicans topple Dem voter registration advantage in crucial swing state as early vote wraps up

Republicans topple Dem voter registration advantage in crucial swing state as early vote wraps up

New numbers released in a key swing state show that Republicans have virtually erased the Democrat voter-registration lead, on top of historic early-voting numbers for Republicans, which one expert tells Fox News Digital is part of an effective strategy on the ground targeting a key demographic. Figures released by the Nevada Secretary of State on Friday showed that Democrats hold a 9,200-vote lead in registrations over Republicans after October data was added. Four years ago, Democrats held an advantage of roughly 86,000 votes heading into Election Day. On top of significantly narrowing the registration gap, Republicans have had a historically high early-vote turnout and lead Democrats by about 5% in the early vote, which ended in person on Friday, while trailing in mail-in votes. Early voting concluded in Nevada with 393,811 votes cast for Republicans, 344,539 for Democrats, and 287,762 for other affiliations, according to the Secretary of State website. ‘HAS DONE NOTHING’: GOP SENATE HOPEFUL RIPS DEM OPPONENT FOR NOT HOLDING BIDEN-HARRIS ACCOUNTABLE ON KEY ISSUE The roughly 49,000 vote advantage that Republicans had over Democrats at the end of the week is a stark contrast from 2020, when Democrats ended early voting with a 43,000-vote advantage. Biden won Nevada by roughly 34,000 votes in 2020. The Democratic turnout advantage in the state in years past has been driven by what is known as the “Reid Machine” that late Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, the U.S. Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, established to help pool resources to maximize support for candidates up and down the ballot.  His approach tapped into networks that extended well beyond the traditional party structure. He leaned especially on the heavily immigrant Culinary Union, which represents about 60,000 casino workers and leads efforts to register voters, make phone calls and knock on doors. “That paradigm has changed,” Nevada’s GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo said in Carson City on Friday. “That dynamic has changed. It has changed, and we are in the game. We are in the game, and it helps that you had a crappy president for the last four years.” A large part of that paradigm shift, Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson told Fox News Digital, has to do with the work that organizations like hers have done in battleground states along with the Republican Party. “You had candidates up and down the ballots, including President Trump and Senate candidates in all of the target states, embracing early voting,” Anderson said. “The candidate has to be brought in themselves. So that’s really important. And then the other three things I think that made a difference was the messaging around absentee early votes. The first is that a lot of the focus was on convenience. It’s, you know, it’s more convenient. You’re busy. You can skip the line of Election Day, vote early. You know, you’re busy with your kids, your child care, your job. You know, whatever those things are that can potentially interrupt your plans on Election Day, just take the convenience of voting early or dropping your ballot in the mail and get a difference. I think that message really worked.” “The second message that we saw really encapsulated and worked in particular in the mail was the military messaging. That it works for our guys overseas, it’s safe, it’s convenient, it’s secure. Then the third, which was, I think, really unique to President Trump and his leadership here as we talked about voting early to overcome the margin of fraud and that did exceptionally well in our focus groups. And then when we presented some of that information to President Trump and to others in the party over time, that became kind of the clarion call of the RNC, you know, ‘Vote early.’ So it’s too big to rig.” FAMILY OF MARINE VET MURDERED BY CARTEL VIOLENCE IN MEXICO: ‘WE’LL TAKE CARE OF IT’ Anderson said that Sentinel Action Fund has also embraced ballot harvesting in states where it is permitted and that one of the keys to Republican success has been the strategic targeting of low-propensity voters who have not voted in years past. Some experts have wondered whether strong GOP early-vote turnout in Nevada, and nationwide, would “cannibalize” the historically strong Election Day turnout that Republicans usually enjoy in a situation where Election Day voters are simply just voting early, and Republicans will have a weaker turnout on Election Day.  Anderson told Fox News Digital that Sentinel Action Fund’s data and modeling in Senate races in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Nevada show that the GOP vote is not being cannibalized. “I know it’s not happening, because we can see it in the data,” Anderson said, pointing to Sentinel Action Fund modeling in the Senate race between GOP Senate candidate Sam Brown and incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. SWING STATE GOP CANDIDATE COULD HIT MAJOR MILESTONE IN MAYORAL RACE AMID ‘REPUBLICAN WAVE’ OPTIMISM “Democrats and Republicans appear to be getting ballots from the same percentage of high- and low-propensity voters, but Democrat Jacky Rosen’s votes are coming disproportionately through the mail,” Anderson wrote on Substack on Friday. “Meanwhile, Sam Brown is winning in-person ballots at a ratio of 1.35 to 1. If the Reid machine is unable to match Republicans during early voting, it’s hard to see it mobilizing for an Election Day surge. There is good reason to believe that Sam Brown can continue to perform well through Election Day.” Some political pundits and politicians outside the Republican Party have also sounded the alarm for Democrats in Nevada in terms of the GOP early-vote surge. “Republicans are kicking our ass at early voting,” Nevada Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus said during a Harris rally in North Las Vegas. “We cannot let that happen.” Respected Nevada journalist Jon Ralston, CEO and Editor of the Nevada Independent, acknowledged on X on Friday that “you’d rather be GOP than Dems as in-person early voting ends today” but pointed out that three remaining variables are “key,” including Clark County mail figures, the independent vote

Pennsylvania Supreme Court sides with GOP in last-minute mail-in ballot dispute

Pennsylvania Supreme Court sides with GOP in last-minute mail-in ballot dispute

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court shut down an effort to allow mail-in ballots lacking a handwritten date to be counted in the 2024 election. The ruling overturns a decision from a Commonwealth Court finding that the state law requiring a handwritten date was unconstitutional. The Pennsylvania GOP appealed that ruling to the state supreme court, and now undated mail-in ballots will not be counted in the upcoming election. Justice Kevin Dougherty admonished the Commonwealth Court for its ruling in a forcefully-worded opinion relating to Friday’s ruling. “‘This Court will neither impose nor countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election.’ We said those carefully chosen words only weeks ago. Yet they apparently were not heard in the Commonwealth Court, the very court where the bulk of election litigation unfolds,” Dougherty wrote. 26 REPUBLICAN ATTORNEYS GENERAL JOIN VIRGINIA IN PETITIONING SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON VOTER ROLL “Today’s order, which I join, rights the ship. And it sends a loud message to all courts in this Commonwealth: in declaring we would not countenance substantial alterations to existing laws and procedures during the pendency of an ongoing election, we said what we meant and meant what we said,” he continued. APPEALS COURT RULES AGAINST GOP IN CASE CHALLENGING 225K VOTER REGISTRATIONS IN NORTH CAROLINA Pennsylvania Republicans hailed the Friday ruling, saying Democrats have repeatedly tried to subvert the dating requirement. “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the law, and the dated ballot requirement will be in effect for this election. Democrats have repeatedly tried to eliminate this important ballot safeguard, and we have stopped them each time,” RNC Chairman  Michael Whatley said in a statement. “We are committed to protecting critical ballot safeguards to ensure every ballot is cast and counted properly and will continue to fight across Pennsylvania to Protect the Vote.” State officials in favor of allowing undated ballots to be counted argue the change would make process easier for election workers. The Pennsylvania Department of State filed a brief in favor of the change prior to the court’s ruling on Friday. THE 1.6M VOTERS WHO COULD DETERMINE THE US ELECTION DON’T CURRENTLY RESIDE IN THE COUNTRY “The requirement that county boards set aside mail ballots with declaration-date errors — and particularly the requirement that they set aside mail ballot envelopes with ‘incorrect’ dates — imposed a significant burden on county boards. Election workers must manually review every ballot envelope to determine whether it has a ‘correct’ date,” the brief said, according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. Friday’s ruling was the second time this month that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has blocked Democrat-backed efforts to dismantle the dating requirement.

Early in-person voting ending Saturday in North Carolina, New Mexico, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia

Early in-person voting ending Saturday in North Carolina, New Mexico, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia

Saturday is the final day for early in-person voting in New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia as the nation sits just three days from Election Day. Here is everything you need to know to cast a last-minute ballot during early voting. North Carolina last voted for a Democratic president in 2008, when Sen. Barack Obama won the state by 0.3 points, or 14,177 votes. Trump pulled out a convincing 3.7-point win in 2016, but that margin shrank to 1.3 points against Biden in 2020. ‘PULLING AN ALVIN BRAGG’: LEFT-WING DA’S ‘FLIMSY’ SUIT AGAINST ELON MUSK’S $1M GIVEAWAY SLAMMED BY EXPERT Late last month, the Fox News Poll had the two 2024 presidential candidates just a point apart, with Democratic nominee Vice President Harris at 49% and former President Trump at 50%. North Carolina is ranked a toss-up on the Fox News Power Rankings. The state has become more competitive as its population has grown. Over the last full decade, North Carolina added roughly 1.1 million people, the fourth-largest gain among all states. Much of that growth has been in urban and suburban areas like those in solidly blue Mecklenburg and Wake counties. The pandemic brought more wealthy, urban Americans from surrounding states, and there are pockets of college voters as well. Rural areas have experienced some population decline, but they remain a powerful part of the state’s overall vote, and they vote overwhelmingly Republican. TRUMP HAS ANOTHER RESPONSE TO BIDEN’S ‘GARBAGE’ COMMENT ABOUT GOP SUPPORTERS Voters who have received their mail-in ballot have until Nov. 5 to deliver it to local election officials. Saturday is the final day for early in-person voting. BIDEN CALLS TRUMP SUPPORTERS ‘GARBAGE’ DURING HARRIS CAMPAIGN EVENT AS VP PROMISES UNITY AT ELLIPSE RALLY Voters who have received their mail-in ballots have until Nov. 5 to deliver them to local election officials. Saturday is the final day for early in-person voting. Voters who have received their mail-in ballot have until Nov. 5 to deliver it to local election officials. Saturday is the final day for early in-person voting. Voters who have received their mail-in ballot have until Nov. 5 to deliver it to local election officials. Saturday is the final day for early in-person voting. Voters who have received their mail-in ballot have until Nov. 5 to deliver it to local election officials. Saturday is the final day for early in-person voting.