I must admit I made a mistake. Before Christmas, I praised NCGOP Executive Director Dallas Woodhouse and party chair Robin Hayes for calling for a new election in the tainted 9^thCongressional District race. I was wrong. I took them at their words and now know that those words have no meaning. I apologize. 

Since they made their statements, both have reversed their positions and called for Republican Congressional candidate Mark Harris to be certified. They’ve given no reason for this dramatic change, except to attack the election board and deny there’s any evidence anything has gone wrong. Clearly, they saw enough evidence with their own eyes to say just a few weeks ago that the misdeeds warranted a new election. 

There’s plenty of evidence to at least delay certification until we know the truth. The most obvious evidence is in the skewed mail-in absentee ballot numbers. Somebody quite obviously committed election fraud. Not only do the numbers not add up, numerous people say they unwittingly committed fraud by collecting ballots for pay. 

Woodhouse complains that the State Board of Elections hasn’t moved fast enough in the investigation, but the whole episode keeps getting broader. Until it’s been thoroughly investigated to find out how widespread the fraud actually goes, nothing should happen. This scheme might involve numerous candidates and elected officials, some of whom may be Democrats. It also may include several counties. It’s an ongoing investigation.

Mark Harris clearly knew that McCrae Dowless, the man allegedly behind the Bladen County scheme, delivered remarkably lopsided margins for his clients. He’s admitted that he wanted to hire Dowless in the first place. He recommended Dowless because Harris liked his “process.” Well, his process was fraud. Until we know what Mark Harris knew and when he knew it, they should not even consider certifying his election.

The flip-flop of the top Republicans tells us a lot about the Republican Party. They clearly don’t care about voter fraud. They created a national movement for voter ID based false claims of voter fraud. Now, when there’s actual fraud, they’re trying to cover it up. They hypocrisy is stunning but the motives behind their voter ID movement are laid bare. They want to win by any means necessary. They don’t care about election integrity.

Finally, the GOP is truly the party of Trump. It’s about winning and nothing else. Truth is a casualty of politics in the modern Republican Party. Our president lies shamelessly and continuously and the GOP has adopted lying as political tool and tactic. What a shame.