MEMO: Pennsylvania Vote-By-Mail Engagement Overview

TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Dee Duncan, President, RSLC PAC

Jessica Anderson, President, SAF

Brendon DelToro, Chief Strategist, Keystone Renewal PAC

DATE: October 30, 2024

RE: Pennsylvania Vote-By-Mail Request Deadline Memo

Pennsylvania Vote-By-Mail Engagement Overview

In January, the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC (RSLC PAC), Keystone Renewal PAC, and The Sentinel Action Fund (SAF) announced the largest Republican statewide mail-in-ballot initiative in Pennsylvania’s history. This groundbreaking eight-figure investment has positioned Republicans to counterbalance the Democrats' dominance in mail-in voting, not only in the upcoming elections this fall, but in future election cycles.

The goal of our effort was twofold: first, we aimed to expand our base of Republican voters and bring new voters to the table in Pennsylvania by targeting low-propensity Republicans with our vote-by-mail efforts. We also sought to increase the Republican share of the vote-by-mail votes and grow the Republican permanent vote-by-mail list. Second, we aimed to encourage Republican voters to embrace the convenience of mail-in ballots ahead of election day and to dispel concerns among Republican voters about mail-in voting by emphasizing its safety, security, and ease of use in Pennsylvania's electoral process.

Request Deadline Program Results

Unlike in previous years, our proactive approach to mail-in voting commenced well in advance of the primary elections. We invested over $1.5 million during the 2024 Republican primary to actively engage with voters statewide and encourage them to make their plan to vote. Since the primary election, we have invested an additional $14.5 million bringing our total investment to over $16 million. To date, our investment has produced over 1 million door knocks, and we have sent 23 rounds of mail. Our digital campaign across the Commonwealth has achieved over 105 million impressions. Additionally, SkipTheLinePA.vote, our website inviting voters to join the 2024 mail-in voting list, has garnered nearly 500,000 pageviews from 339,000 unique visitors. Our team has also engaged in live calls, P2P messaging, and direct one-to-one texts. Our team continues door-to-door outreach and phone calls, while our digital campaigns will run through Election Day.

Across the ecosystem, more Republican groups than ever before have been engaged in growing vote-by-mail among Republican voters in Pennsylvania. This has been crucial to our efforts, and our continued success is due, in large part, to the increased participation and support from local Republicans and allied organizations. Our strategic early investment has positioned us strongly for the final stretch of this campaign, and it is our mission to run through the finish line and secure victory in what may be the most crucial election of our lifetime this November. When we launched this effort, we set a goal of producing 200,000 vote-by-mail requests from voters who have never voted by mail. We have now produced over 365,000 vote-by-mail requests from first time mail voters. We have also added nearly 240,000 Republicans to the permanent vote-by-mail list. Republicans produced more permanent sign ups during the 2024 election cycle than Democrats did, marking the first time Republicans have ever outpaced Democrats in permanent list sign ups and cutting their advantage to less than one million. This growth will pay dividends for Republicans for cycles to come. From our target universe over 380,000 voters have requested a vote-by-mail ballot. This is an overperformance of 212% compared to the Election Day only target voters. Beyond breaking our request and permanent list sign up goals, we have seen the Democrats vote-by-mail request advantage shrink by a staggering 514,000 requests and to date, their vote-by-mail return advantage is only 379,000 votes. When compared to the 2020 Presidential election, it is clear that Republicans have significantly cut into the Democrats advantage by over 560,000 votes. When we launched this program, we never set out to overtake the Democrats in vote-by-mail. We simply sought to cut into their growing advantage. To that end, we have exceeded all of our goals and expectations. Pennsylvania is likely going to be decided by less than 100,000 votes in either direction, and because of the early and continuous investment that Republicans have made in encouraging and embracing vote-by-mail in the keystone state, we are going to enter Election Day in a historically strong position.

Conclusion

Since announcing this historic effort in January, we have focused relentlessly on mobilizing low-propensity voters and boosting the Republican share of vote-by-mail participation. The primary election confirmed that our strategy was on point, with more Republicans embracing mail-in voting. We carried that momentum into the general election, and it has paid off. Because of the work that was done over the course of this election cycle, Republicans up and down the ballot will go into Election Day in a stronger position than ever before.