Democrat and Republican strategists weigh in on importance of early voting

Early voting in the 2024 presidential election began in several states last 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 he dropped out and 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.