Continuing his recent radio tour across our Republic, President John Pudner traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to further analyze not only the state of the race, but how early voting has and continues to impact elections across our Republic, and as seen in states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, these changes have influenced campaigns and non-profits across the Midwest.
More pertinently, key election rules in the swing states have been heavily utilized by liberal candidates and organizations to increase voter participation in their favor, and as analyzed previously by Pudner, are rules that are rife for fraud. As seen in Michigan, a recently enacted referendum that was twisted by out-of-state interests not only eliminated Voter ID requirements, but enshrined this new move in the state’s constitution, barring the legislature from take any action against it. Meanwhile, both Michigan and Pennsylvania allow same-day registration and neither have Voter ID requirements, leaving the two main sources for liberal gains, early and on-campus voting, wide open for usage.
As Pudner and hosts Ditch and Tim Van Horn dissect, though, conservatives must play the game as its currently set in order to not only win, but elect officials that could work towards re-establishing these firm, common-sense election integrity measures.
For more in-depth analysis by President John Pudner on this topic, please click here. To learn more about TBOR Action's efforts on topics including election integrity, please click here.
The following transcript from this interview is presented in its entirety with minor edits:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
early voting, conservatives, Trump, election, Biden, liberals, voting, win, plain sight
SPEAKERS
Ditch, Tim Van Horn, and TBOR Action President John Pudner
Ditch 00:00
John Pudner is on the line with us. Hey John!
John Pudner 00:02
Hey, thanks for having me.
Tim Van Horn 00:04
Interesting thing when we get some show preparation and some notes...The headline of your topic for today is the secret to Republican victory in 2024 hiding in plain sight. It's a pretty darn good hook, John.
John Pudner 00:23
Yeah, I think it's actually quite accurate. I don't think that is hype.
Tim Van Horn 00:26
Well, what's hiding in plain sight?
John Pudner 00:30
Well, it's the early vote. The only place Democrats are winning the last several elections are in early voting, and then on-campus voting on Election Day, and that's it. Other than that, Republicans have rolled up big margins, so it's just a matter of cutting into that early vote lead a little bit that would give Republicans victory, as has happened in Florida, where they're actually winning the early votes.
Ditch 00:55
Florida's been doing mail in voting successfully for quite some time now, haven't they?
John Pudner 01:01
We did heavily in 2000 in that Bush election that we won by 500 votes, we were all over early voting, so yeah, they've had a lot of time to practice, and we're not blown away at all by it when it started becoming more normal and almost half people voted that way over the last couple of years.
Ditch 01:17
But the problem with the way it was handled during the pandemic was it wasn't very transparent. What's the trick that Florida has been able to have to nail it down and be successful with it that the rest of the country can learn from?
John Pudner 01:34
Well, they just didn't hesitate, they're playing by the rules that are there, and that's why in the midterms, it was a 300,000 vote lead for Republicans. They've turned that state from 50/50 to double-digit wins. At the other extreme, we went into Election Day in Pennsylvania with Democrats up almost 600,000 votes. If Republicans had just cut that in half in Pennsylvania, and in Georgia, then both those US Senate seats would have gone Republican, and Herschel Walker would have run without a runoff. But, because of concerns about the way mail-in was being done in places like Nevada, which did open the door for fraud, Republicans over-reacted and stopped voting early, even people who had been doing it in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, they just stopped doing it, and that was just a huge coup for the Democrats.
Tim Van Horn 02:25
John Pudner joins us on Memphis Morning News. There's definitely multiple types of voters - Those that don't mind the early voting and those who are strictly voting on Election Day. Is it necessary to convert those election-day people into early voters, or is this a case of evangelism, and it doesn't matter what you normally do, just getting more people to go early?
John Pudner 02:55
We are finding that a lot of Republicans are more open to voting in-person early. The apprehension is more from putting a ballot in the mail and being concerned about that process. It just is such an advantage if your voters vote early on either side partly because the biggest way you turn out voters is by knocking on their doors. Well, all in, that cost a few dollars once you figure everything out, so the Democrats have this huge advantage because hundreds of thousands of their voters vote early, and they stop having to knock on their doors to get them out. Republicans still spend millions because so many of their voters wait till Election Day, and things come up. I mean, people have jobs that pull them out of town, or elderly people have health issues. There really is a push to try to bank the vote to have people go maybe the week before, when there's no line, still going in-person, go through the normal process, but go and get your vote in.
Ditch 03:49
The idea is don't risk it something coming up on election day and you not making it, or maybe, you know, it's weather, and you're just sort of a skeptical voter to begin with. You're like, "Yeah, you know what? I was gonna vote, but now I don't think I'm gonna", and once that day's gone, there is not another chance to get their vote, that's for sure. You said early voting is really where the victories lie, and I heard yesterday that it's five months to election day or whatever, but it really isn't, because states start early voting in September, so really, it's just around the corner.
John Pudner 04:30
That's right, and even though the polling looks good for Trump in Pennsylvania and Michigan, but those two states between them had almost a million vote edge for the Democrats going into Election Day, and then your other two factors there are they've gutted Voter ID in Michigan and there is same-day registration, so both those states have no Voter ID and same-day registration, which means there's huge campus efforts. So, I'd encourage Republicans to not feel overconfident just because the polling is good. By the rules of those two states, if we get crushed again in early votes, then suddenly those could go the other way again, certainly those both look like wins for Trump, but you got to make some effort getting some early votes in to win.
Tim Van Horn 05:12
And you mentioned there are a couple of states that really can make the difference in just getting a few more here and there, could certainly put the pressure on and provide an opportunity for Republicans in 2024, because it's not just Trump, and I think you bring up a great point regarding the Georgia election and Pennsylvania...it can work down ballot as well, which we have a problem here with in our municipality trying to win down the ballot.
Ditch 05:47
John Pudner with us this morning. John, I gotta ask you a question about this theory that, come the Democratic National Convention, somebody else will step in for Biden. Let's just sort of hypothesize here, what do you think will would occur in the polling should he step down and somebody else step in his place?
John Pudner 06:12
I think it is a problem. The one thing I keep reminding people is you have to convince one person that that's the right strategy and that's Joe Biden. I think if anyone were playing a Risk board, you would immediately replace him as a candidate with the Governor for Michigan or somebody, but you got to convince him, and he sounds to me like he reacts very negatively to any suggestion that he could lose to Trump, so I think that's their hang up. You do worry about a clean slate. I mean, you think you're locked down, and something like that is a dramatic change, and it's certainly a push to say they didn't really want to Trump versus Biden again, anyway, so now we're giving you another option. You have to be ready for it, but it's hard to build a national campaign quickly too, even with party apparatus, so there are challenges too to just introducing someone new.
Ditch 07:03
And there doesn't seem to be, other than himself on the gout, California Governor Gavin Newsom, you know, sort of promoting himself, doing a campaign actually even in Florida comparing California to Florida, and he quickly learned that's probably not a good move, there doesn't seem to be anybody...you're talking about building a campaign for someone else, but there doesn't seem to be anybody else even getting any kind of a spotlight. It appears that it is going to be Joe Biden, and I think there's...I guess I'm asking that question because I wonder how many people are out there, in these polls, that are not necessarily all in for Trump, but they're definitely not voting for Biden because of his record and just who he is at this point in his political career. If there was someone else, they would vote for him, but since there isn't, they're gonna vote for Trump.
John Pudner 08:00
Yes, I think that's why you've heard the recent concern about votes siphoned off for Kennedy because that can happen both ways, but the concern is liberals are very good with the outside groups at trying to peel a few conservatives off, and they'll definitely be saying Kennedy is a medical freedom guy against vaxes. They'll do all those tactics to realizing, as you said, there's some that are just not gonna get to Biden, but if they can just get them off Trump, can Biden win with less than 50% like he did in several states last time with some spoiler? That's gonna be a tactic they will spend their billions on.
Ditch 08:39
All right, John. Thanks for the conversation with us this morning on Memphis Morning News.