What Will Be the Fallout of This Election?

At least we got a tax cut

Donald Trump will not succeed in stealing this election.  Given the Republican sweep everywhere but the presidency, there have not been many opportunities for other Republicans to contest their defeat.  (As I understand it, a few have, but not as aggressively as Trump).

What Trump's challenge of this election has accomplished is to allow future Republican candidate to probe for the weaknesses in the system and understand better how to overturn an election next time.

Clearly the number one lesson of this election is that the courts are not the way to do it.  Judges, even the most right wing judges, are not willing to throw out an election.

But the aftermath of this election has reviewed some more promising targets.

The vote counting and vote certifying system is the most obvious point of attack.  This time, Georgia's Republican Secretary of State held firm and insisted on upholding the integrity of the election.  Can anyone doubt that he will face a primary challenger next time around?  Can anyone doubt that Republicans will be running as voting officials on a promise to "count all the legal votes and none of the illegal votes," which will be code for never certifying a Democrat, no matter what.  

Granted many of the other swing states had Democratic Secretaries of State who were not subject to such pressure.  Republicans will challenge all of them, no doubt.  Maybe they will fail.  But there are other election officials as well.  The usual county level elections official is the County Clerk. Given that counties are units of geography rather than population, most County Clerks can be expected to be Republicans for the foreseeable future. What if County Clerks just throw out all Democratic votes in their counties as fraudulent?  It may be enough to close statewide office to Democrats.

In Michigan, the state and each county has a four-member elections board, consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans. In Wayne County and statewide, some board members resisted certifying the results.  What if in the future Republicans on Michigan elections boards refuse to certify Democrats regardless of the vote?  

And then there is the matter of state legislatures. Between gerrymandering and the normal tendency of election maps to favor less concentrated populations, all the swing states have solidly Republican legislatures. Following the census, they will reapportion so as to ensure Republican domination for the next decade.  State legislatures could not override the popular vote after the election.  But suppose they change the law to move voting for Presidential electors from the people to the state legislature.  Such a move would clearly be constitutional.  And at least one Supreme Court theory holds that state governors would not have the power to veto such a change. 

The only question can be, will Republicans pay a political price for such measures.