GOP leaders pursue new lawsuits over 2024 election rules – including attacking methods of voting they want supporters to use

(CNN) —& Republican leaders are encouraging their supporters& to vote by mail& in this year’s consequential presidential election, even as their party pursues lawsuits and legislation that would make it harder for those votes to count. The Republican National Committee and the Mississippi Republican Party& are suing the Magnolia State& to end its practice of including absentee ballots received up to five business days after the election. In the swing state of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, the RNC and other Republican groups& have challenged& efforts to count absentee ballot envelopes missing a date – and have won so far. The GOP has also jumped into cases in& Ohio,& Georgia& and& Florida& to defend restrictions on ballot drop boxes enacted by Republican lawmakers that are now being challenged by groups on the left. And in North Carolina, a new law, advocated by Republican lawmakers and in effect for this year’s elections,& eliminates& what was once a three-day grace period to accept most mail-in ballots. But amid the legislative and legal attacks on early voting, the GOP’s& leadership is nonetheless vowing& a robust program to convince Republicans to turn in ballots early, either via in-person early voting or by mail, with a campaign called...