WILL THEY TRY TO PRE-STEAL THE NEXT ELECTION?

At Lawyers, Guns & Money, Paul Campos writes:

I fully expect the next few years will be a non-stop campaign on [Donald Trump's] part to win the White House back, by doing as much as possible to rig elections in Republican-controlled states, via legislation allowing the state legislature to appoint its own set of electors irrespective of election results etc.

I think Trump might gradually lose interest in a 2024 comeback (not because of legal problems -- he'll never go to prison -- but because he might get sick, or bored, or become distracted by something else). Laying groundwork in state legislatures years in advance of a run doesn't seem like his style.

But I think the idea of voter-proofing elections on the GOP's behalf will live on in state legislatures, independent of Trump.

Laws allowing legislatures to override the certified popular vote won't be described as efforts to circumvent democracy. They'll have anodyne names like "The Election Integrity Act of 2021" -- or, more brazenly, "The Defense of Democracy Act of 2021." They'll be portrayed as efforts not to throw out the popular vote in presidential elections, but to ratify the victory of the person who "really" got more votes -- invariably, the Republican candidate. (You know how those Democrats cheat.) And the bills might not apply only to presidential elections -- there are close races up and down the ballot, and Democrats sometimes win them. That can't be allowed to continue!

This year, the system held firm even in red states and states with Republican-controlled legislatures. But what will happen if Republicans try to make election theft legal before a theft attempt is undertaken? I think the line will hold -- but I'm not certain. The GOP electorate will insist on some response to the occupation of the Oval Office by a cheating usurper. So these bills will get a lot of votes. Their sponsors will become top-tier Republican candidates for higher office. Maybe none of the bills will pass, but the idea will be mainstreamed in the next couple of years.