The Republicans trying to convince their voters to use mail ballots

Americana: What are you seeing in Pennsylvania that pundits might be missing?

Cliff Maloney: Well, let me go over the mechanics first. We’ve got 120 guys and girls on the ground. They’ve been working since September 1, and they’ve knocked on more than 150,000 doors so far. Right now, we’re focused on requests with low propensity Republicans. As ballots go out, we’ll turn everything over to targeting the doors of people that have a ballot who are modeled to be aligned with Trump — Republicans and independents who are likely to vote red.

I am enamored with the Harris numbers. We all knew ballot requests would be down after COVID, but if I had to bet a year ago, I would have said they’d be down 100,000, and we’d have to fight to be down by a little less, knowing that Republicans like to vote on Election Day. The fact that they’re down 414,000 from where they were at this time, and we’re down 87,000? You couldn’t pay me enough money to believe that might happen.

Why did it happen? Number one, Republicans had the most to gain and the least to lose, so now that we’re actually running a real ballot chase program, you can see that Democrats were taking candy from a baby in 2020. This is the first time that the RNC, state GOP, our group Citizens Alliance, Turning Point Action — first time that everybody’s singing from the same song sheet, and I think that really gives us a chance of victory.

Americana: But how much of that atrophy with Democrats is just their voters no longer being worried about COVID? That’s what we saw in 2022.

Cliff Maloney: I definitely think that’s a variable. We knew it was going to come down. The good news for Republicans, which was good news for Democrats in 2020, is that if a low propensity voter gets a ballot sent to them, they’re pretty much 70% more likely to vote. That’s why Democrats were able to run up the score and be up 1.4 million votes against Trump going into election day. They don’t have that now. So, could Democrats who requested mail ballots in 2020 but not 2024 show up at the polls? Sure. It costs a lot more money to turn them out, a lot more time, a lot more energy.

Americana: So what exactly are you doing that wasn’t done in 2020 and 2022?

Cliff Maloney: There were zero full-time paid ballot chasers for Republicans in those years, period. We’ve plainly never had a strategy for mail-in voting. It was basically: Ignore that, turn out on election day. But imagine you’re in a sales competition. You say, I’m just going to sell on the final day, but all of your competitors get to sell for 50 days. You better have a hell of a final day if you plan on winning that.

Now, you’ve got Early Vote Action rocking the voter registration across Pennsylvania. I give [Early Vote Action president] Scott Presler a lot of credit for that. Turning Point Action is on the ground, helping us with all facets of the effort. The PA GOP and the RNC are laser focused on election integrity. The Trump campaign, the [Dave] McCormick campaign, they’re rocking the messaging, the big spends on TV, radio, digital, texting. And obviously we are laser focused at fixing the 141,000 vote problem.In 2020, Trump lost by 80,000 votes, but 141,000 Republicans requested a mail in-ballot and never sent it back.

Americana: Have you gotten feedback from those non-voters, an explanation of why they didn’t send the ballots back?

Cliff Maloney: I spent a lot of money polling before we agreed to do this. It’s about as boring as you’d expect. There’s no grand conspiracy. They were like, hey, my daughter’s soccer game ran late. Hey, I got stuck at work. Hey, I was sick and I planned on dropping it off on Election Day and couldn’t make it.

Nobody targeted them. Democrats go to the doors of people that have a ballot, and they have a message for that type of voter. We had none of that. But I’ve knocked 6 million doors for our programs, and these are the simplest doors I’ve ever had to knock. We’re not persuading, we’re not advocating, we’re not talking about issues. Usually I’m in the heat of a primary and I’ve got to call out the RINO, or I’m in a general election trying to get a swing voter. Forget all that. This is going to the door of somebody that is going to vote straight ticket Republican, and saying: Bob, can I count on you to send your ballot in today? We capture that information on our app. A week later, we run the data, and if Bob hasn’t voted, because that’s public, we’ll know if he submitted his ballot or not. Guess what? We go back to Bob’s door.

Americana: What are Democrats still doing right?

Cliff Maloney: I’ll do what I’m not supposed to do and I’ll give the Democrats credit. They’re serious people. It’s a paid operation. This is business. This is power. They don’t pull punches, period. We do see them, especially in the swing counties. I don’t for a second think there might be an enthusiasm gap with their voters, when it comes to Kamala Harris. There is not an enthusiasm gap with paid operatives. That is something Democrats do not miss the boat on.

Americana: So, what was wrong with the pre-2024 GOP, exactly? Why weren’t they doing this?

Cliff Maloney: I think there was a culture shift in Republicans, at the operative level, the activist level, and at the voter level. In 2020 everybody said: Don’t vote by mail. There’s too much potential for fraud. In 2021 we said, maybe the courts will fix it. They failed us. In 2022 we said, maybe the lawmakers will help us. They failed us. In 2023 we got our asses beat so hard that we all looked in the mirror and said, Well, we got to do something here. And 2024 is the first time that we’re all in.

You’re going to adapt to the rules and try to win, or you’re going to forfeit the election and be a crybaby in the corner. “Oh, I don’t like the rules.” That’s bullshit. It’s time to fight fire with fire. I want to flip the Pennsylvania state house. I want to make sure Rep. Scott Perry wins his reelection. And then I want to win every statewide race in Pennsylvania. Those are the things I think that we have the ability to impact.