Voter suppresion/"stealing the election" megathread

[Admiral Stockdale]

I think there are a couple levels or degrees of suppression.

1. Slow down mail.  This involves the receipt of your absentee/mail in ballot OR the delivery of it after your ballot is mailed in.  This can be largely addressed by doing things as early as possible.  Does it potentially disenfranchise late deciders?  Yes.  Does it impact "both sides"? Yes, but Democrats seem to be saying they will be voting by mail more than in person - at least that's what they say now.  There's a huge spot light on this now and I think the scrutiny will be essentially stop this from happening.

2. Destroy/Lose mailed in ballots or applications.  This is really a dramatic step up and something I just don't see happen on a large scale.  There's a risk that you get rid of some of 'your votes' although you could target very likely precincts that would be against you.  It's relatively easily to see happening based on historical voting trends and other audit trails. 

3. Preventing in-person voting.  This takes many forms (e.g., reducing sites, limiting machines, voter roll screw ups, challenging identifications, etc.).  This happens to some extent every time.  Long lines are ridiculous.  This will continue and state needs to be held accountable to address this in the long run. 

Vote early.

[Admiral Stockdale]

Mr. Trump and his Republicansfascists have a number of potential avenues available. I expect all of them to come into play.

...

Maybe I am being naive, but I can't see it coming to this.  If you are going to potentially go this far, why not just halt the election now?   

Let's say Trump gets 44% of the popular vote - I wouldn't suspect that ALL of those people would support these approaches.  Even if it is 30% of the voting public in support of Trump At All Costs, you have 70% that would be against it.  The rest of the world (with some exceptions) would likely not recognize the legitimacy of the Presidency.  It's one thing to stand behind a no-mask, open the economy message as an old time GOP governor, but to actively participate in what is essentially a coup - across multiple states?  Despite SCOTUS leaning right, Roberts and others are not all Clarence Thomases.

Will there be intimidation, suppression, "letter of the law" tossing of ballots - Yes.  This goes on all the time (by both parties depending on the time in US history).  Will it be so widespread and coordinated across all levels of government with a broad-based inter-state conspiracy - I really, really doubt it.

A low-mid 330's level EC win by Biden with an ~8% popular vote margin (my CURRENT take) gets a bunch of Twitter bellyaching by Trump (unfounded theories, etc.), no actual concession (there doesn't need to be), and a hamfisted transition period with Trump not attending the inaugural.  Then years of Trump tweets attacking Biden/Harris and guest spots on FoxNews. 

Like I said, I could be very wrong - and I hope I am right - but I can't see the situation as you describe playing out.