A mail carrier in West Virginia pled guilty to changing the party registration on eight absentee ballot requests from Democratic to Republican.
Thomas Cooper entered the plea in federal court in Elkins to attempted election fraud and injury to the mail, U.S. Attorney Bill Powell said in a statement.
Cooper was charged in May after eight mail-in requests for absentee voter ballots had their party affiliations altered.
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According to the affidavit, when he was then asked about the other requests, Cooper said, “I’m not saying no,†but if the requests were picked up along his postal route, “I would take the blame.†Cooper was then asked if he was “just being silly†and he replied he did it “as a joke†and that he didn’t know those voters.
Cooper offered up the now standard, I was kidding when I committed a felony that has become a favorite excuse of Trump supporters.
This is the sort of behavior that Trump supporters are bound to engage in because Trump and Fox News are telling them on an almost daily basis that mail-in ballots are election fraud and that Democrats are cheating by encouraging mail-in voting.
It turns out that there are no documented incidents of Democrats committing election fraud with mail-in ballots, but this isn’t the first time that Republicans have tried cheat with absentee votes.
Trump’s rhetoric is encouraging his supporters to cheat and at least in one case in West Virginia, it worked.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
