Rachel Maddow tore into Republicans on Wednesday night for remaining silent after an actual instance of voter fraud swung an election in North Carolina.
The MSNBC host ridiculed the GOP for repeatedly pounding the voter fraud drum (without evidence) against Democrats but ignoring a real instance of illegal “ballot stuffing” when it helped one of their candidates.
“They have been fundamentally and absolutely silent on this,” Maddow said of Republicans. “Isn’t this supposed to be your thing that you worry about all the time?”
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Rachel Maddow hits Republicans for remaining silent as actual voter fraud appears to have swung an election in North Carolina. #ctl #p2 #maddow pic.twitter.com/YjCQMgtptf
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) December 6, 2018
Maddow said:
This really does look like an industrial strength, ballot stealing, ballot stuffing, professional operation that not only helped Mark Harris appear to win that seat, it also looks like the same operation run by the same people may have helped this guy, Mark Harris, oust the incumbent Republican member of Congress who used to represent that district back in the primary in May. There was a different Republican who held this seat. He was ousted when he lost his own primary to this guy, Mark Harris. It looks like the same kind of tactics, illegal tactics may have been used by contractors working for Mark Harris in that primary as worked for him in the general election which have now resulted in a congressional seat that nobody knows what to do with. This professional election rigging operation in this one congressional district in North Carolina not only screwed up this one congressional election, it also appears to have cost a Republican incumbent congressman his seat a few months ago, but still, Republicans in Washington cannot come up with a single word to say about it. They have been fundamentally and absolutely silent on this. Isn’t this supposed to be your thing that you worry about all the time?
Maddow’s outrage comes after it was revealed that, as Politico reports, a contractor working for GOP candidate Mark Harris’ campaign in North Carolina’s 9th congressional district was  “accused of collecting and filling out hundreds of voters’ absentee ballots.”
Republicans are cool with voter fraud if it helps them
What this election year in particular showed is that Republicans are happy with actual voter fraud if it helps them win elections.
We saw instances all across the country of the GOP using shady tactics or discriminatory restrictions to keep Democratic-leaning voters from casting a ballot – and they didn’t bat an eye while doing it.
From Georgia to North Dakota to Kansas, and beyond, Republicans have demonstrated that they only care about lobbing false charges of voter fraud against Democrats.
But when it comes to a legitimate election rigging operation that helped them win a congressional race in North Carolina, the GOP has been crickets.
That tells us all we need to know about how Republicans view actual voter fraud.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
