"If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?"
"If we are lucky, this fraught and dysfunctional election cycle will reach a conventional stopping point in time to meet crucial deadlines in December and January. The contest will be decided with sufficient authority that the losing candidate will be forced to yield. Collectively we will have made our choice—a messy one, no doubt, but clear enough to arm the president-elect with a mandate to govern.
As a nation, we have never failed to clear that bar. But in this election year of plague and recession and catastrophized politics, the mechanisms of decision are at meaningful risk of breaking down. Close students of election law and procedure are warning that conditions are ripe for a constitutional crisis that would leave the nation without an authoritative result. We have no fail-safe against that calamity. "
"The political system may no longer be strong enough to preserve its integrity. It’s a mistake to take for granted that election boards and state legislatures and Congress are capable of drawing lines that ensure a legitimate vote and an orderly transfer of power. We may have to find a way to draw those lines ourselves."
"Right now, the best we can do is an ad hoc defense of democracy.
Begin by rejecting the temptation to think that this election will carry on as elections usually do. Something far out of the norm is likely to happen. Probably more than one thing. Expecting otherwise will dull our reflexes. It will lull us into spurious hope that Trump is tractable to forces that constrain normal incumbents."
This
The Atlantic article is a long read, but it is extremely alarming. It is a wake-up call. We are likely about to enter unknown territory. Only a landslide with indisputable results, pretty much on election night, will forestall the messiest post-election fight in our history:
The Election That Could Break America:__If the vote is close, Donald Trump could easily throw the election into chaos and subvert the result. Who will stop him?
