President Donald Trump's frequent attacks on mail-in voting have made his own voters far less likely to take advantage of filing absentee ballots -- and the Washington Post reports that GOP operatives fear it could create a "turnout crisis."
Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill tells the Post that he recently met with a group of Republican voters who traditionally send their ballots through the mail, but were now reluctant to do so thanks to the president's regular attacks on the system.
“They were confused about two different kinds of mail-in balloting, where one is ‘good’ and one is not," he explains.
A GOP strategist in North Carolina, meanwhile, concedes that Trump's attacks on mail-in voting are "a problem" for the party.
"The president has oversimplified the issue to criticize the method of voting, rather than the way it’s done," they say. "The details matter."
According to the Post's sources, RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, who in public has backed the president's attacks on mail-in voting, has told him privately that he will do damage to the party unless he makes a more nuanced critique of the system.
"McDaniel has additionally urged him to stop his blanket attacks on mail voting and present a more nuanced message," the Post reports.