In America, elections are almost never nullified. They are contested, they are recounted, they might even be challenged in court, but it's rare indeed for anyone to even propose that an election's entire result to be tossed out so that a new election can be held in its place. It's just not a common occurrence. In fact, it is so rare that I can't even remember when the last "do over" election of this nature even happened.

However, when the results of any individual election simply cannot be trusted with any degree of integrity, then there is no real recourse other than to void the results entirely and start all over again. It's a radical solution, but sometimes desperate times call for such desperate measures. And the situation in North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District must now be seen as so damaged that there really can only be one acceptable repair, and that is to start all over.

If half of what has been accused of happening last month in NC-09 actually took place, it would be grounds enough to call for the election results to be voided and nullified. What has been alleged simply goes way beyond "dirty tricks" campaign tactics -- if true, it would constitute the outright theft of a modern American election.

A paid Republican operative apparently orchestrated a large-scale election fraud. He directed efforts to illegally steal votes, destroy votes, and alter votes for his candidate's benefit. Those are all major crimes, it should be noted. This isn't some sneaky robocall telling voters to show up on Wednesday (after the election is over), this is outright ballot box stuffing and throwing out votes you don't like. This is worthy of some third-world sham government or some totalitarian "election" where Our Dear Leader gets 98 percent of the vote. It's that bad. And it happened in an American congressional district.

The outrage over the outcome has been building ever since these stories arose. Mostly, it has come from the Democratic side, since the Democratic candidate lost (by around 900 votes). But as the accusations get more and more egregious and as the seriousness of what has taken place sinks in, even some Republicans are now beginning to denounce what took place.

The head of the Republican Party in North Carolina is now saying he would support a new election. That's a pretty extraordinary thing these days, because it is so rare to see political operatives put country before party. In an interview, the party chair said he had actually gotten sick to his stomach (and vomited) when he realized how serious the situation had become. And now he's on board with holding an entirely new election cycle for the House seat.

Part of why even North Carolina Republicans are getting on board the calls for a new election is that the election fraud may have also taken place (by the same means, orchestrated by the same person) during the Republican primary. Meaning the party's nominee might only have become the party's nominee by outright fraud. This makes it much easier politically for Republicans to join in the Democratic outrage, since their own primary was affected. This also means that, should another election be held, the district should go all the way back to square one and hold a new primary election cycle as well. It's the only way to be sure the will of the people is reflected in who is on the ballot, after all.

Nancy Pelosi has already indicated that if North Carolina doesn't hold a new election for their Ninth District seat, then the House of Representatives as a whole would probably block the "winner" from being seated in January (which they have the power to do). So North Carolina now really has only two choices: either spend the next two years with a vacancy seat in the House (where the voters from NC-09 would have no representation at all for two whole years), or hold an entirely new election (where the district voters would have to wait some portion of the two-year term without representation, until a new and honest election could be organized and held). They're both bad choices for the voters, as you can see, but the second one will at least allow them to eventually participate in the House during the next two-year term. And the second one also means that the voters will finally have a chance to have their votes accurately and legally counted. All of them, this time around.

This should be seen as of the highest importance. Unlike the almost-completely-nonexistent "voter fraud" the Republicans have been obsessing over for the past decade or so, this is actual election fraud -- the outright stealing of an American election. Such things have certainly happened before in American history, but they should not be allowed to happen in today's modern world -- instead, they should be dark chapters of our past that students only read about in history books.

An attack on any American election by anyone, is an attack upon us all. It doesn't matter where you live or what party you support -- this is a fundamental undermining of our democracy. This calls for a moment of unity between Republicans and Democrats. It calls for bipartisan denouncement of such tactics being used. It calls for the person or persons responsible being held to account in a court of law, because these are serious crimes.

But most of all, it definitely should call for an entirely new election for the people of North Carolina's Ninth Congressional District. There simply is no other way to put this right.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant