Kari Lake's ballot-chasing plan may not work. But it has 1 big upside

Kari Lake’s announced ballot-chasing initiative is one big “no duh.”

Registering voters and getting them to cast their ballot is as basic as electioneering gets.

That said, the nitty gritty matters, and a few Republicans on the 2022 ballot, Lake included, could have tipped the results in their favor had the party generated a slightly bigger turnout among conservative and conservative-leaning voters

So, Lake is on point. (Apparently as is Arizona GOP Chair Jeff DeWit, whose office told The Republic's Stacey Barchenger that they were surprised by Lake's announcement given that DeWit's new administration has spent months "building what could be the premier early ballot chasing structure in the country.")

But whether ballot-chasing can help Republicans win in 2024 depends on how committed Lake and Co. are to the pledge.

Because they flubbed that pretty royally in the 2022 election.

Lake's own adviser admitted making a mistake

Don't take my word for it. Lake’s one-time policy director concluded the same.

In an interview with conservative talk show host Greg Medford a few weeks after Lake’s loss in the governor’s race, Sam Stone said she flat-out “missed the mechanics” — as opposed to the messaging. (Though Stone and Medford agreed on one exception: Lake’s hard right turn on abortion — with no exceptions for rape and incest — hurt her and Republicans.)

By mechanics, Stone meant mastering the voter rolls, such as knowing the faithful from the low-propensity voters in need of engagement.

Will they connect? Lake, GOP chair disagree on election strategy

It includes tracking early ballots, especially those that haven’t been turned in, and going all out to get voters to do so — even if it means “volunteering to walk them to their mailbox or driving them to the post office.”

Instead, Stone said the Republican Party apparatus and candidates al‪ike “trashed” early ballots, which prior to the 2020 election had served them well in Arizona.

“We tell them (voters), don’t trust them,” Stone told Medford. “You gotta come in on Election Day, come in and tear it up in front of the election monitor and demand them to print you a new one.”

At least the narrative on early ballots has changed

The strategy gummed up voting on Election Day, leading to long lines at the polls that invariably prompted some to walk away without voting.

It also meant, in essence, ceding the system of early ballots — the preferred method of an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters — to Democrats.

Ceding a system, Stone said, that under the leadership of late U.S. Sen. John McCain, that consistently delivered Republican victories in statewide races.

Stone believes that missed mechanics are the primary reason why Republicans underperformed in rural Arizona counties, their traditional area of strength, in 2022 from four years earlier. Voter turnout in counties excluding Maricopa and Pima fell between 2% and 7%.

That's notable given Lake's loss margin (17,117 votes) and that of Abe Hamadeh in the attorney general's race (280).

It remains unclear how Lake and party surrogates are committed to chasing ballots, which requires a good deal of organizational and logistical work at the local level. And time.

For now, jettisoning the narrative that early ballots cannot be trusted is at least a welcome start.

Reach Abe Kwok at akwok@azcentral.com. On Twitter: @abekwok.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake's ballot-chasing plan has 1 big upside