I know I’ve expressed dislike for the guy in the past, but seriously? I thought for even something like this, he would at least have a good take on it.
It's the 2014 Crimean referendum all over again. Liberals cry about how there's no way 97% of the votes would support integration into Russia. Yeah, there was probably some voter fraud going on and yeah, the presence of Russian troops would push people there to vote for integration. And what of it? The "real" result is probably something closer to at least 60% based on past polling and assuming the Russian and Belarusian population would vote to integrate, which is more than enough for the referendum to pass. 60% vs 97% literally means nothing because the referendum just required 50% + 1 vote.
It's the same exact deal with the election except Maduro didn't even need a majority. He just needed a plurality. So, the real argument is not whether he committed voter fraud, but whether he committed voter fraud to the point where he turned a minority into a plurality. And I can find no compelling reason to say that he did.