Will County Gazette

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy is encouraging more voters to take advantage of absentee voting to boost the party's overall chances of victory in the April 4 election.

“Democrats have won many close elections on the strength of their Vote By Mail programs,” Tracy wrote in a story by the Northwest Herald. "They do not, however, and so a more accurate phrase would be 'on the strength of their turnout efforts.' When the total voter pool skews to one party, that party tends to win."

Tracy noted that Virginia Republicans successfully utilized mail ballots in 2021 by implying that mail-in ballots increase voter security: Once you request the ballot, no one else can do so in your name. Even better, once you have the ballot, you can drop it in a secured location, hand it to a county official or surrender it to vote in person, he said.

“Voting by mail, with its separation in the chain of custody, poses unique challenges to election integrity,” Tracy said in the story. “We need to address those issues so that we can have fair, safe, secure, honest elections moving forward.”

Tracy took a similar position last fall while trying to boost general election turnout. While his current position might suggest a reversal of course, Tracy insists that isn't so. According to the story, the main GOP concern is that voters participate in elections by whatever legal means are available.

“In contrast to our genuine concerns about how certain aspects of voting by mail undermine fair and honest elections, there is relatively little increased risk of fraudulent abuse of your ballot when you vote by mail as opposed to voting in person," he said. "In a sense, voting by mail can actually decrease the possibility of a bad actor voting your ballot for you.”

Tracy emphasized that mail-in ballots are convenient and safe, and he said that Republicans would need them in order to compete with Democrats, the story stated.