By running ads on Facebook, the Trump campaign can target its message in favor of absentee voting more directly to its own supporters, without drawing as much public attention as a campaign speech or television ad might. Some supporters of Mr. Trump have taken his opposition to voting by mail to the extreme, with a group in Michigan burning their state-mailed absentee ballot request forms in protest. A gap in mail-in ballot requests between Republicans and Democrats could be critical in November. And so, while the president has continued to rail against the practice, the Trump campaign has concurrently maintained an ad presence boosting mail-in voting for months. The campaign has run roughly 3,800 ads on Facebook since 2018 telling its supporters to “request your ballot,” according to Facebook’s ad database.

Source: New York Times September 01, 2020 23:05 UTC