Spectator World editor-at-large Ben Domenech said Republicans must formulate an early vote strategy if they want future victories after the 2022 midterms.
While Republican detractors decry the idea of a COVID-induced "Election Month," Democrats in states like Pennsylvania banked hundreds of thousands of votes before Sen.-elect John Fetterman's debate against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz.
Though public opinion shifted in Oz's favor, Fetterman's banked votes were already in the mail before he hit the stage in Harrisburg.
"I'm going to give you something that's a little dissatisfying, unfortunately, because I think it's something that we shouldn't have to deal with as a republic," Domenech told "Life, Liberty & Levin."
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"But I think, unfortunately, Republicans need to have an early vote strategy — regardless of all the different storylines that I think that you can draw about this election and what went on, the narratives, I think that we have to agree at this point, these COVID-based policies of early voting that essentially create months-long periods where people are voting in Pennsylvania for 50 days… "
"Those are things that we can gripe about and we can complain about and we know is wrong, but they're not going away. And I think that, unfortunately, Republicans are going to have to have strategies where they target the early voting," Domenech said.
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The GOP must work within the confines of the new rules in many states, which allow such balloting.
In Pennsylvania, state law prohibits canvassing of absentee ballots until the morning of Election Day, meaning larger and Democrat-heavy counties like Philadelphia, Allegheny, Delaware and Lehigh might take longer to report figures due to their large populations.
"Unfortunately, this time around, if a lot of [GOP] candidates had had that kind of approach, we might see different results in a number of different scenarios. That's an unfortunate reality that we are going to have to deal with," Domenech continued.
He added that in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott — who won re-election over former Rep. Beto O'Rourke — engaged in an early-vote strategy.
"It paid off for him," he said.
"And I think it's something that we just have to deal with as it is and understand that this is just the nature of the way that our elections work now."
