In the November preview issue of the Atlantic, Barton Gellman authors a chilling article that should serve as a warning for what may be to come, and provides some suggestions to keep our democracy on track.
Summary:
Concessions are important in allowing the winner of an election to assume legitimate power.
Anyone who thinks that Donald Trump will concede the election, regardless of the outcome has not been paying attention for the last 4 years.
The CORONA virus, a deluge of mail-in ballots, and a sabotaged Postal Service will make it likely that the 2020 election will not be settled on the night of the election.
The trend has been for ballots counted in “overtime” are predominantly blue. This has been called the “Blue Shift.”
The Trump administration will sow discord and call the validity of ballots counted after the night of the election into question, because they are aware of the Blue Shift.
Our democratic system is not designed to handle this contingency, as evidenced by the work of a election data modelers. Many modeled outcomes resulted in street-level violence.
The best defense against this outcome is to vote in person. If your vote is tallied on election night, it will do more to prevent a constitutional crisis.
Link to full article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424/