Republicans Must Change Voting Methods to Win Elections: Virginia Lt. Governor

GLEN ALLEN, Va.—Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears said Republicans must use Democrats’ own voting rules to beat them at the ballot box, and she urged conservatives to vote early and by mail to win back the Virginia Senate majority.

“We’ve got to get people voting, voting differently, voting with information, so that our children can get ahead. Otherwise, nothing will change,” Earle-Sears told school choice and parental rights advocates during an education summit near Richmond, Virginia, on March 25.

Earle-Sears urged the audience to utilize all the voting rules put in place by the Democrat majority prior to Gov. Glenn Youngkin being elected, including the 45-day early voting law in Virginia.

Virginia’s absentee voting law went into effect in July 2020 with the passing of House and Senate bills HB 1 and SB 111 in 2019, which are identical and eliminate the requirement for an excuse to use an absentee ballot (pdf). This allows any qualified voter to vote in person or by mail up to 45 days before the election.

Democrat voters are voting for a full 45 days before Election Day and Republican voters tend to vote only on Election Day, said Earle-Sears.

“Until we can change the rules, we’ve got to live with the rules we have, and 45 days is 45 days, 45 chances, 45 opportunities,” she said. “Because you know, on Election Day, you could be sick, and we can’t come and drag you out of bed.”

Democrats Outpace Republicans in Early Voting

According to the United States Elections Project, among the 23 states that report early voters’ party affiliations, 42 percent of ballots were cast by Democrats and 33 percent were cast by Republicans.

A recent Gallup poll found a 21-point gap in early voting preferences between the two parties, with 39 percent of Democrats and 18 percent of Republicans saying they planned to vote early, either by absentee ballot or in person.

Using early and mail-in voting is how the Democrats gained the advantage and won back the state Senate, said the lieutenant governor.

“But you know how they’re doing it is at the ballot box, as it should be. We must also be at the ballot box,” said Earle-Sears. She stressed that even if conservatives don’t like the rules being used and feel it goes against tradition, they must utilize them to win.

In 2022, the Virginia senate had 20 Democrats and 18 Republicans.

The most recently elected Virginia Democrat Senator Aaron Rouse won his bid for the Senate in January 2023 after a special election in which he was behind until the early and mail-in votes started being counted, after which Rouse won because he received the majority of those votes.

It was a close race, with Rouse ahead by only 348 votes with all precincts reporting. The results showed Rouse received 19,430 votes compared to Republican Kevin Adams’ 19,082 voted, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Rouse’s win resulted in a 21–18 Democrat majority in the Senate.

Data from TargetSmart estimated that 54.6 percent of all early voters in Virginia were Democrats.

According to the Virginia Department of Elections, 992,227 people voted absentee in 2022, either early in-person or by mail on or before Nov. 4. That’s nearly triple the 337,315 people who voted absentee during the 2018 midterms.

The 2022 spike in early voting and mail-in voting may be due in part to the 2019 law that expanded early voting access beginning in 2020.

GOP Must Embrace Early, Mail-in Voting

When it comes to no-excuse early and absentee mail-in voting, Republicans are significantly more likely than Democrats to say that a voter should only be allowed to vote early or absentee if they have a documented reason for doing so—62 percent of Republicans versus 16 percent of Democrats—according to the Pew Research Center.

However, Earle-Sears stressed that in addition to early voting, Republicans need to utilize mail-in absentee voting to increase GOP chances of winning.

“That’s how they’re beating us—absentee ballots. Because on election night, what happens is we win, generally,” Earle-Sears said. “And then on election night, the other side say, ‘Well, we lost tonight, but absentee ballots have to come in.’”

Eight states—California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington—allow all elections to be conducted by mail, and data shows that Democrats take advantage of this more than Republicans.

Alabama, New Hampshire, Mississippi, and Connecticut have no early voting options. The rest of the states vary in their rules for early voting, with some states allowing voting to start 10 days early and one state, South Dakota, starting as many as 46 days before Election Day.

In Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and New York, early voting begins 10 days before Election Day. In Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, and North Dakota, the number is 15 days. Texas begins 17 days before Election Day, Iowa 20 days, and Arizona 27 days.

Indiana and New Mexico begin 28 days early, and Ohio and California begin 29 days early.

Montana starts 30 days before Election Day, followed by Illinois at 40 days, Virginia at 45 days, and South Dakota at 46 days.

In Georgia, early voting begins four Mondays before Election Day, and in North Carolina, voting begins the third Thursday before Election Day.