ping. Safire believes felonies have been comitted.
On that point, he used the weasel word "could," as in "That was no mere 'dirty trick'; it could be a violation of the U.S. criminal code."
If you take his contention at face value, a scheme by a party to stick to a deliberate false statement that might affects the voters' choice of candidate, becomes criminal. "Bush said that Iraq presented an imminent threat," for example. Other talking points that are deceptive, partial truths, etc. would be similarly afflicted. "The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth havd been discredited." The list is pretty long!
The statute is designed to (and by my read, is effective only to) criminalize duping people out of something of pecuniary value. It does not criminalizing duping people to change their vote.