Maine Republican chair cries voter fraud because 'dozens of black people' voted

Charlie Webster, the chairman of Maine's Republican Party, sees "dozens of black people" voting on Nov. 6 as evidence of voter fraud because "nobody in town knows anyone who’s black."

In an interview with WCSH's Don Carrigan earlier this week, Webster said that Democrats were winning elections because they blocked an effort by the Republican Party to repeal same-day voter registration, which requires an ID and proof of residency.

"Let's just look at what happened on Tuesday," he explained. "I mean, literally hundreds of new people came in. We don't know if they're residents or not but they came in and voted. And there's no way of knowing that."

"In some parts of the state -- for example, in some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens -- dozens of black people who came in and voted election day. Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in town knows anybody that's black. How did that happen? I don't know, but we're going to find out."

When Carrigan pressed the party chairman for specifics about where fraud occurred, he vaguely referred to "several rural Maine towns" and promised an investigation to find out more.

"What I'm doing is purchasing a post card, we're going to mail it in and thank people for registering to vote and see whether it comes back," Webster said.

"So, you think the Democrats bussed in people?" Carrigan asked.

"I just think that the system, without some kind of an ID or without some kind of way to check, is fraught for abuse," Webster insisted. "I'm just telling you my personal opinion. I believe it's a problem."

Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan also recently pointed to African-American turnout to explain his loss to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

“We were surprised with the outcome,” the Wisconsin Republican told WISC-TV’s Jessica Arp. “We knew this was going to be a close race. We thought we had a very good chance of winning it. I think that the surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which definitely gave President Obama the big margin to win this race.”

Watch this video from WCSH via Think Progress, broadcast Nov. 13, 2012.