Biden campaign calls on GOP to drop lawsuits over mail ballots, citing Trump’s new fondness for it

DENVER (AP) — President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign on Thursday called on top Republicans to drop litigation seeking to curtail aspects of mail balloting now that Donald Trump has begun to embrace the method.

Trump for years falsely claimed voting by mail was riddled with fraud, but his 2024 campaign began a program this month to encourage mail voting if convenient for people. It is part of Republicans’ attempt to increase mail voting among their supporters.

At the same time, the Republican National Committee, newly under the former president’s control, has sued or joined lawsuits seeking to limit certain aspects of mail voting. That includes laws in some states, including Nevada, that allow late-arriving mailed ballots to be counted as long as they are sent by Election Day.

“If Donald Trump is serious about finally recognizing that mail voting is a great option for voters to utilize this November, he should demand the RNC and his MAGA allies drop every one of these lawsuits throughout the country,” Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

Republicans said there is no contradiction between supporting mail voting and suing to make it more secure. In their Nevada challenges, they contended that the state’s procedures for counting mail ballots received after Election Day opened the door to possible fraud.

“Democrats are playing dumb about a very simple concept: We support mail voting, but we also support safeguards to make mail voting secure,” said Danielle Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the RNC and the Trump campaign. “It’s really not hard: The left should stop its assault on the foundation of our election system and accept that Americans