Republicans are working to counter Democrats’ advantage in mail-in and early voting with a seven-figure campaign coordinated through the Michigan Freedom Network.

The absentee and early voting program announced by the Republican State Leadership Committee PAC on Friday will launch in targeted state House races across Michigan in an effort to retake the lower chamber that shifted to Democratic control in 2023 for the first time since 2010.

The focus will be on low-propensity voters in what’s expected to be a close election, encouraging them to utilize the absentee and early voting options to help Republicans up and down the ballot in November.

“We saw how effective a robust absentee ballot and early voting program can be in Virginia in 2023, and with the promising results we’ve seen from our mail-in voting program during the primary election this year in Pennsylvania,” said RSLC PAC President Dee Duncan.

“We decided it was time to bring the same program to the critical battleground state of Michigan,” Duncan said. “If Republicans are going to win … in November it is imperative that Michiganders take advantage of early and absentee voting so that we know the score heading into Election Day and can strategically target voters down the final stretch heading into November 5^th.”

In 2020, more than 3.2 million Michigan voters cast ballots early, with 40.7% from Democrats, 38.8% from Republicans, and 20.5% from unaffiliated voters. In 2022, the total declined about 1.6 million, with 52.9% from Democrats, 37.6% from Republicans, and 9.5% from unaffiliated voters, according to TargetSmart, a Democratic political data firm.

The data shows that while the percentage of Democrats utilizing early voting options has continued to grow since no-reason absentee ballots were approved in 2018, the share of Republicans using those options has declined.

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“We’re starting to address the hole we’ve found ourselves in with early voting,” Max Docksey, the PAC’s political director, told Fox 2.

Last year, the RSLC launched a Secure Your Vote campaign with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Spirit of Virginia PAC to raise awareness about early and absentee voting that increased absentee ballot returns by 32% over 2021 numbers.

Between early and absentee voting “we secured 26% of our target universe turnout goal heading into Election Day and converted twice as many low-propensity voters as we had set out to do,” according to a RSLC statement.

Overall, the effort boosted early and absentee voting by 5.5% compared to 2021.

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Docksey told Fox 2 the RSLC is hoping for similar results in Michigan in 2024.

“If we take advantage, the GOP will be more successful,” he said.

“The program will be helpful at the legislative level, but also up and down the ticket,” Docksey said. “If you bring them (low-propensity voters) in, it’s going to help everybody.”

The RSLC-Michigan Freedom Fund campaign will involve a “multi-pronged effort” that includes helping voters join a mail-in voting list for 2024 to ensure they receive a ballot for the primary and general elections, as well as resources about voting options at SkipTheLineMI.vote.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher this year as Michigan’s hardworking men and women are being crushed by inflation driven by Democrats, our families are rightly afraid of crime in their neighborhood, and our students are trapped in failing schools by adults who are more interested in protecting their own interests than those of our kids,” said Michigan Freedom Fund Executive Director Sarah Anderson. “We are excited to join with the RSLC PAC in this unprecedented effort to win Michigan and start putting our state back on track.”