2024年总统选举的提前投票开始于几个州上周，两党都敦促他们的支持者在选举日之前投票。
共和党战略家Tricia McLaughlin是Vivek Ramaswamy 2024年总统竞选的高级顾问和通讯主管，在他之前辍学了并支持共和党候选人唐纳德·特朗普。
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez是进步倡导团体和政治行动委员会NexGen America的主席。它旨在鼓励年轻选民，特别关注气候变化、种族不公正和经济不平等。
ABC新闻的Phil Lipof与McLaughlin和Tzintzún Ramirez坐在一起，谈论在这个选举周期提前投票对两党的重要性。
ABC新闻:现在加入我们的是来自共和党和民主党的声音，共和党战略家Tricia McLaughlin和NexGen America的总裁Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez。感谢你们两位抽出时间加入我们的讨论。
崔西亚，从你开始。2020年，前总统特朗普和共和党人敦促选民在选举日亲自投票。现在似乎有更多的人开始谈论提前投票的重要性。今年这对共和党有多重要?
特里西亚·麦克劳克林:我想这是游戏的名字。这是政治的基本要素。你的信息可能很好，但是如果你没有让你的选民去投票，那么比赛就完全变了。
请记住，在2020年，大约40%的宾夕法尼亚州选民通过邮件投票，大约50%的威斯康星州和密歇根州选民也通过邮件投票。
当然，这是在疫情时期。但是共和党人必须玩和民主党人一样的游戏，那就是提前投票，合法的选票收集，尽我们所能让我们的选民去投票箱，不管是亲自去，通过邮件还是缺席。
ABC新闻:克里斯蒂娜，让我们转向你。你的组织是美国最大的青年投票组织。年轻选民喜欢在选举日之前投票吗?
克里斯蒂娜·钦顿·拉米雷斯:嗯，我们尽量让他们尽早投票。但年轻选民是核心选民，如果你组织他们，他们会让你心悸，因为他们喜欢在选举日出现。但是我们在弗吉尼亚州，这个州从今天(9月20日，星期五)开始提前投票。令人难以置信的是，全国一些关键州已经开始提前投票。
因此，确保人们提前投票可以让他们确保他们不会错过排队或者调整他们的时间表，特别是对于学生或者工薪家庭来说。提前投票是人们应该利用的一个很好的选择，但它没有被充分利用。
ABC新闻:在宾夕法尼亚州这样一个重要的州，共和党人Tricia正在起诉选举官员，试图阻止他们让选民纠正邮寄选票的技术问题。超过一半的州允许选民修正错误。公平地说，每个人都会犯错。不过，你认为选民应该能够用他们的选票纠正错误吗?
麦克劳克林:当然，每个人都会犯错，但这取决于宾夕法尼亚州众议院来改变法律。国务卿不能胡作非为，单方面修改法律。让我们把事实摆在这里。2020年，宾夕法尼亚州最高法院认为，这些选民不能改变，不能改变选票，如果没有遵循指示，他们就不能提交选票。
这意味着选举官员必须执行这些选举法。这就是他们，这就是他们需要做的。他们管理法律并执行法律。他们不能单方面改写它们。因此，可以理解和理所应当的是，RNC和宾夕法尼亚共和党正在起诉，以确保我们确实遵守法律。在宾夕法尼亚不同的人有不同的规则。这造成了大规模的选民混乱。这也让选票变得容易造假。
ABC新闻:Cristina，正如刚才广播中所讨论的，佐治亚州选举委员会今天批准了第11套新的规则变更，要求县选举委员会在选举日手工计算选票，然后将结果与电子投票机进行比较。共和党州检察长办公室在一份意见书中写道，这一改变是非法的。你的想法?
钦顿·拉米雷斯:是的，我们已经看到在格鲁吉亚，选举委员会被特朗普的支持者超越，他们打算让投票变得非常困难，以操纵规则。这是2020年后的长期计划，当时特朗普和共和党人输掉了一场又一场诉讼，声称选民欺诈。他们现在接管了这些董事会，试图改变规则，使之对他们有利。这对民主非常危险，并可能对选举产生巨大影响。
我们回到刚才说的宾夕法尼亚。再说一次，我们谈论的是人们可能忘记在选票上签名，或者没有正确填写日期，然后被给予机会简单地改正，这样他们就可以行使最基本的美国权利。
同样，一半的州已经允许这样做了。所以这只是另一种尝试，共和党的夺权，而不是确保他们能够凭借自己的想法赢得胜利，他们试图通过操纵规则来赢得胜利。
ABC新闻:嗯，好吧。这个问题会在法庭上解决。我，在我们走之前，我想知道是什么让你们俩在2024年的选举中彻夜难眠——一件事。崔西亚。
麦克劳克林:我们必须坚持政策、政策、政策——移民、经济、通货膨胀。如果我们坚持这一点，我认为共和党会全面获胜。
ABC新闻:克里斯蒂娜?
钦顿·拉米雷斯:我认为这次选举事关重大。作为一个生活在其中一个州的女性，三分之一的女性，三分之一的育龄女性已经被剥夺了50年的生育权，这让我夜不能寐。我儿子的未来，随着气候危机的到来，知道我们有一个候选人甚至不相信这是真的。
ABC新闻:嗯，你们两个都很好地阐述了双方的观点。非常感谢您抽出时间。特里西娅·麦克劳克林和克里斯蒂娜·赞恩·拉米雷斯。我们感谢你们两位。
麦克劳克林:谢谢。
A Democrat and Republican weigh in on the importance of early voting
Early voting in the 2024 presidential electionbegan in several stateslast week, with both parties urging their supporters to vote ahead of Election Day.
Republican strategist Tricia McLaughlin was a senior adviser and communications director for Vivek Ramaswamy's 2024presidential campaign, before hedropped outand endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is the president of NexGen America, a progressive advocacy group and political action committee. It aims to encourage young voters, with a particular focus on climate change, racial injustice and economic inequality.
ABC News' Phil Lipof sat down with McLaughlin and Tzintzún Ramirez to talk about the importance of early voting to both parties this election cycle.
ABC NEWS: Joining us now, our voices from both the Republican and Democratic side, Republican strategist Tricia McLaughlin and the president of NexGen America, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. Thank you both for taking the time to join us and talk about this.
Tricia, let's start with you. In 2020, former President Trump and Republicans were urging voters to vote in-person on Election Day. Now it seems to be there's more of a push to talk about the importance of early voting. How important is that this year for Republicans?
TRICIA MCLAUGHLIN: I think it's the name of the game. It's the nuts and bolts of politics. Your message might be great, but if you're not getting your voters out there to vote, then the ball game is completely changed.
Keep in mind, in 2020, about 40% of Pennsylvania voters voted by mail and about 50% of Wisconsin and Michigan voters voted by mail, as well.
So, of course, this was during a pandemic. But Republicans have to play the same game that Democrats play, which is early voting, legal ballot harvesting, doing everything, everything we can to get our voters out there to the ballot box, whether it be in-person, by mail or absentee.
ABC NEWS: Cristina, let's turn to you. Your organization is the largest youth voting organization in the USA. Do young voters prefer to vote ahead of Election Day?
CRISTINA TZINTÚN RAMIREZ: Well, we try and get them to vote as early as possible. But young voters are that core constituency that if you ever organize them, they will give you heart palpitations because they like to show up on Election Day. But we're in Virginia, it's a state that early voting starts today [Friday, Sept. 20]. It's quite incredible, early voting already starting in some key states across the country.
And so making sure that people vote early allows them to make sure they are able to miss lines or be able to adjust their schedules, especially for people that are students or working families. Early voting is a great option that people should utilize and it's underutilized.
ABC NEWS: And Tricia, Republicans in Pennsylvania, such an important state, are suing election officials to try to prevent them from letting voters correct technical problems with their mail-in ballots. More than half of states allow voters to fix errors. Everybody makes mistakes, I think it's fair to say. Do you think, though, voters should be able to fix a mistake with their ballot?
MCLAUGHLIN: Of course, everybody makes mistakes, but that's up to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to change the law. The secretary of state cannot go rogue and change the law unilaterally. Let's really lay out the facts here. In 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that these voters could not change, could not change the ballots, they could not submit this if the instructions were not followed.
That means that election officials have to carry out those voter laws. That's what they're, that's what they need to do. They administer the laws and they enforce them. They cannot rewrite them unilaterally. So understandably and rightfully so, the RNC and Pennsylvania GOP are suing to make sure that we're actually following the laws. There's, there's different rules going out to different people in Pennsylvania. That's creating massive voter confusion. And it's also making the ballots ripe for fraud.
ABC NEWS: And Cristina, as is discussed a little bit earlier in the broadcast, the Georgia Election Board approved a new 11th set of rule changes today that requires a county election boards to hand count ballots cast on Election Day and then compare the results to the electronic voting machines. The office of the Republican state attorney general wrote in an opinion the change was unlawful. Your thoughts?
TZINTÚN RAMIREZ: Yeah, we have seen in Georgia the Elections Commission Board be overtaken by Trump supporters that are intending to really make it incredibly difficult to vote, to rig the rules. This has been a long-term plan post-2020, when lawsuit after lawsuit -- that Trump and Republicans lost -- claiming voter fraud. They've now taken over these boards to try and change the rules in their favor. This is very dangerous to democracy and could have a huge impact on the election.
And we go back to what was just said about Pennsylvania. Again, we're talking about people maybe forgetting to put their signature on their ballot or not putting the date correctly and then being offered the opportunity to simply correct that so that they can exercise the most fundamental American right.
And again, half of states already allow this. And so this is just another attempt, a power grab by the GOP instead of making sure that they are able to win on the merit of their ideas, they're trying to win by rigging the rules in their favor.
ABC NEWS: Well, all right. Well, that one will be hashed out in court. I, just quickly before we go, I want to know what keeps both of you up at night in regards to the 2024 election -- one thing. Tricia?
MCLAUGHLIN: We've got to stick on policy, policy, policy -- immigration, the economy, inflation. If we stay on that, I think the GOP rules, wins across the board.
ABC NEWS: Cristina?
TZINTÚN RAMIREZ: I think there's so much at stake this election. As a woman that lives in one of the states, one of the three women, one in three women of reproductive age that have had my reproductive rights taken back 50 years, that keeps me up at night. And the future of my son, with the climate crisis barreling down, knowing that we have a candidate that doesn't even believe it's real.
ABC NEWS: Well, you both lay out the sides very well. Thank you so much for taking the time. Tricia McLaughlin and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez. We thank you both.
MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you.
