That thing that we are assured never happens, happened. Former Democrat US Rep. Michael “Ozzie” Myers has pled guilty to multiple charges related to a scheme to stuff ballot boxes for Democrat candidates between 2014 and 2018.

Myers has a checkered history, having been expelled from Congress for accepting bribes. Apparently, he didn’t learn his lesson and has been running a ring of corruption for decades.

A former congressman from Philadelphia pleaded guilty Monday to charges related to fraudulently stuffing ballot boxes for Democratic candidates between 2014 and 2018.

Federal prosecutors said former Democratic U.S. Rep. pleaded guilty to violations of election law, conspiracy, bribery and obstruction.

Messages seeking comment were left for his defense lawyers listed on the online docket.

In a sentencing memo dated Friday, federal prosecutors said his “criminal efforts were generally, although not exclusively, directed at securing election victories for local judicial candidates running for Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas or Municipal Court who had employed Myers as a ‘political consultant.’”

According to the report, Myers bribed a judge of elections in Philidelphia to add votes to the candidates of his choice, again, all Democrats. Those bribes totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, so this was no small operation. Further, Myers also conspired with another elections judge in a scheme to push people to vote for certain candidates. Lastly, that judge also cast votes for candidates who weren’t even on the ballot.

Whether those judges are themselves being prosecuted isn’t mentioned in the DOJ press release that Fox is basing its report on. It’s probable that they were willing to testify against Myers and may have received some kind of immunity. I would hope not, though, given how serious of a crime accepting bribes is.

Of course, the response to this will be that it happened prior to the 2020 election. But anyone who thinks this is an isolated incident in a place like Philidelphia is as naive as they come. In 2020, because of the sudden, likely illegal changes to election rules, including mass mail-in voting, ballot stuffing would have been far easier than in past elections. The idea that absolutely nothing untoward went on when ballot stuffing schemes existed in 2014-2018 is laughable, and anyone not being completely obtuse will admit that.

These major blue cities are plagued with election issues, and those in charge have no incentive to clean things up. For the foreseeable future, Republicans will have to run campaigns that run around corruption that isn’t going anywhere.