Rachel Maddow Calls Out GOP Congressman For Tricking Democrats Into Voting On The Wrong Day

Rachel Maddow called out a Republican member of Congress for trying to trick his Democratic constituents into casting their ballots on the wrong day, thus making their votes invalid.

As the MSNBC host pointed out on Monday night, GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin did the exact same thing in 2016, and he was successful. Now he’s hoping it works again.

“If you live in that district, man, think about how it must feel to know that your member of Congress, your representative in Washington, is trying to get re-elected by tricking you into voting on the wrong day so your vote won’t count,” Maddow said.

Video:

Maddow explained:

For the second consecutive election, a Lee Zeldin campaign mailer has the wrong deadline for voters to return absentee ballots. And once again, Zeldin’s campaign said the incorrect date was a mistake.  Zeldin’s Democratic opponent, Perry Gershon’s campaign, says the mailers targeted likely Democratic voters in the district, such as college students. So you know, in 2016, you try to pull this off. You target Democratic-leaning voters in your district and you try to trick them into voting late so their votes won’t be counted, and you get caught and you say it was a mistake. ‘Oh, terribly sorry. We didn’t mean that at all.’ Then two years later, you pull the exact same trick. It’s almost honorable in its stick-to-it-iveness, right? But the one thing you can’t do when you try this for a second time, is you can’t once again say, ‘Oops, it’s a mistake, the exact same mistake we made last time.’ But that is how Republican congressman Lee Zeldin is trying to hold onto his seat in New York state in Congress. ‘Tis the season for this kind of thing. Honestly, though, if you live in that district, man, think about how it must feel to know that your member of Congress, your representative in Washington, is trying to get re-elected by tricking you into voting on the wrong day so your vote won’t count. Watch your wallet, man, in that district, right? This is how he wants to represent you – by conning you into maybe screwing up your vote so it won’t count. Cue evil mustache-twirling cartoon villain.

Republican voter suppression efforts are sweeping the nation

Rachel Maddow has been laser-focused on exposing Republican voter suppression efforts this election cycle. The deceptive tactic from GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin is just one of many that we’ve been all across the country.

In Georgia, GOP gubernatorial nominee and attorney general Brian Kemp has purged hundreds of thousands of voters from the rolls. In North Dakota, Republicans have disenfranchised thousands of Democratic-leaning Native American voters. In Texas, voter registration applications are intentionally being slow-walked.

All across the country, as progressive enthusiasm surges ahead of the midterm elections, Republicans are working around the clock to suppress votes.

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Sean Colarossi

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.

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