As election day approaches, Pa. republicans and Trump embrace mail-in balloting

For years, Pennsylvania Republicans have pushed against mail-in ballots being used in elections -- even seeing a challenge to mail-in ballots thrown out of court earlier this year -- but, the party is singing a different tune in the run up to the Nov. 7 elections.

"After last year's experience, where the mail-in ballots just overwhelmed our votes at the polls, our party has really wrapped around this and is taking it on very strongly," Lawrence Tabas, chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, told NBC10's Lauren Mayk in the most recent episode of her Battleground Politics podcast.

Republican candidates across the state took losses across the board in recent elections, with Democrats flipping 12 House districts along with winning key seats in the U.S. Senate and in the Governor's office.

As of Monday, more than 925,000 Pennsylvania voters -- of the state's more than 8.6 million registered voters -- have requested mail-in ballots, according to the Pa. Department of State and over 52 percent have already returned them.

Of these returned ballots, about 74 percent have come from Democrats while only about 18 percent of the returned ballots have come from Republicans.

These numbers will likely change before Election Day, however, as Tuesday, Oct. 31 is the last day that Pennsylvanians can request a mail-in ballot for next week's upcoming elections.

Tabas said the Republican party is looking to bridge this divide, even launching a "Bank Your Vote" campaign over the summer intended to encourage voters to "vote by mail or early in-person, and ballot harvest where permitted."

"We are going to catch up to Democrats who have had a three year advantage because there were some in our party who were not in favor of it, but now they realize that this is critical," said Tabas.

Even former president Donald Trump, who has long been critical of mail-in ballots, -- going as far as suing the City of Philadelphia over mail-in balloting -- has flip-flopped on the issue.

In a recent promotional video, he tells potential voters that "we may not like the current system. But, we need to master the rules and beat the Democrats at their own game. And then, we can make our own rules."

For Tabas, it's as simple as looking at the numbers.

"You look at the numbers. You want to win. Mail-in ballots are a legal way of voting in Pennsylvania. So, why would we go into an election with one arm tied up behind our back?" he asked.

Democratic political consultant, Mustafa Rashed told NBC10 that since Democrats embraced mail-in balloting since it became law in Pennsylvania about four years ago, they benefit more from the practice.

"The Democrats are in the lead and have an advantage in mail-in voting because a lot of Democratic voters across the state are used to it, they've heard about it, they never were in a position where they feared it or thought that something would happen to their vote," he told Mayk, in her Battleground Politics podcast.

He said that the change in Republican tactics isn't that surprising, as "this is the playing field that we are working with now."

For Democrats, he said, they will need to "streamline and fine-tune" efforts to encourage voters to utilize mail-in ballots, in order to not lose ground.

"You can make up for it, at least on paper by registering new voters, getting new voters into the mix who weren't eligible to vote four years ago," he said. "So, while the advantage could shrink. I think Democrats will reach out to new voters to get them to be part of the mix."

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