MSNBC host Rachel Maddow appeared to suggest Tuesday night that bad weather may have had "partisan implications" for Georgia's special election by hurting voter turnout.
When it became clear that Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff was likely to lose the congressional race in Georgia' sixth district, Maddow asked MSNBC correspondent Steve Kornacki if bad weather may have affected voter turnout.
"If there was a turnout effect from the bad weather today in the district, does that have any partisan implications that you can foresee in terms of what was expected for same-day, election-day voting here, rather than the early vote?" Maddow asked.
The question was spurred in part by multiple discussions during MSNBC's election coverage about how Ossoff focused more heavily on early voters who cast their ballots before Tuesday.
"Potentially, this is anecdotal," Kornacki said. "I’ve even heard some Republicans saying this ... [Dekalb County] is the Democratic part of [the district] ... There have been some anecdotal reports that the turnout here in Dekalb [was] less than expected."
"Ah," Maddow responded.
"You can attribute that to anything. We'll see if that turns out," Kornacki said. "Now, obviously, if you get into an election like this where it's going to be decided probably by a point or two, you can also blame anything, whichever side you end up on."
Later in in the program, Maddow appeared to criticize money in politics for the election outcome, NewsBusters reported.
"If nothing else we're getting real-time results of what it means when more money is spent to try to win a congressional seat than at any other time and for any other seat in American history," Maddow said.
Ossoff spent about seven times more on advertisement time and other campaign costs than his Republican opponent, Karen Handel, who won the election.