Republicans vow a robust 'ballot harvesting' operation after years of protest and fraud claims

After years of railing against the practice of collecting and delivering other voters’ ballots, Republicans are vowing to mount their own “ballot harvesting” operation ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Following Democrats’ success encouraging their supporters to use alternative voting methods in recent elections, Republicans are seeking to change their tune on practices like mail-in voting and “ballot harvesting,” as conservatives have derisively referred to it in the past, seeking to close the gap.

But the GOP’s effort is running up against base voters who are skeptical of the practice, as well as laws to prevent ballot collection in key states that the party itself pushed.

In a Newsmax interviewin late April, Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said the party’s ballot collection plans are “well underway.”

“The plans for that are going to be huge,” she said. “We’re firing on all cylinders.”

An RNC official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly,said the party is focusing its efforts on the battleground states of Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina. But thanks in part to Republicans around the country who have long claimed that ballot collection is a vehicle for fraud, the practice of having political volunteers or operatives collect and deliver ballots for other voters is explicitly legal in just one of those states, Nevada.

Ballot collection by anyone other than a close relative was banned by Republican-controlled legislatures in Arizona in 2016 and Georgia in 2021.

It’s been illegal for nonfamily members to return voters’ ballots in North Carolina and Michigan for years. In Pennsylvania, only voters who are disabled or casting an emergency absentee