If you are a foreign actor (like say Russia) Don the Con’s undermining the validity of the election process has set it up so that the game is not to GET AWAY with vote tampering, but to GET CAUGHT.
The criminal in the White House has made this scenario plausible if not likely:
A postage stamp costs 55 cents. A photocopy costs another 10. So for about 65 cents you can mail a fake ballot. $13k will buy you 20k fake ballots and stamps. It doesn’t matter if the paper it’s printed on is all wrong. It does not matter that they are all signed with the same name or to random names that don’t match anyone on the voter rolls, the point will be to get caught. The system of flagging bulk mailings and signature verification will work, but none the less the postal service will be obliged to deliver (what they can easily figure out is fake ballots) to the elections boards. The board of elections will then be obliged to open and examine what they will quickly determine is fake ballots. They will then be obliged to count these ballots as “Fraudulent”. So just drive around MI and PA and drop 20k of these badly made, easily flagged fake ballots in mailboxes and Trump will then have all the “evidence” he needs to declare the election results tainted and illegitimate. It’s important to note here that this is entirely illegal and a felony. I am not encouraging this. I’m simply laying out the conditions Trump has set up with his actions. In fact, the less effort put into making the fake ballots believable the better. Trump and the Russians would like nothing better than to have as many fake ballots identified as early as possible on election day.
It will not matter to the GOP enablers or Trump that the system worked to preserve the election integrity. That the ballots were quickly flagged, set aside, and NEVER COUNTED won’t matter. They will have their talking point: “Tens of thousands of fake ballots were cast in PA and MI!!!!!” The right-wing echo chamber will repeat the rallying cry (in all caps this time “TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FAKE BALLOTS!!!” The spineless GOP sycophants will go along for the ride regardless of the damage done to our democracy. Fox “News” will cover the “Scandal” endlessly. As the RGB seat filling disgrace proved, they only care about power.
Journalists will be scrambling (too late) to explain what happened and how the system actually worked. How fragile Trump has made the election process needs to be talked about now. Scenarios like this need to discussed now. People need to be educated that votes cast are not votes counted and that finding fraud is likely. We need to discuss these “what ifs” to minimize their impact. Put simply: “What if the Russians dump 20k clearly fraudulent ballots in mailboxes, intending to get caught, just so Trump can claim fraud?” It’s a scenario I have not heard at all in the MSM.
So this is the situation we find ourselves in; a president willing to burn the whole system to the ground to save his own ass from prison, and GOP filled with cowards and bottom feeders willing to let it happen. As much as I pray this scenario doesn’t happen, if I can think of it, the Russians surely can and have. How our elections work is not state secrets. Donald Trump’s sick and self-serving undermining of the election process is one more reason that he must be prosecuted for his financial crimes when he leaves office.
The only hope for America is an election defeat so resounding that none of the disinformation and meddling matters. Let’s get it done.