Of the many things there are to fear these days, I think this tops my list:

[Lonestarblue]

23. What I worry about more is state and local unscrupulous Republicans.

The Guardian has an article this morning about how a local elections board in a Georgia county has removed all Democrats from the board (not the only county to do so). What this means is that only Republicans, most of whom believe the big lie, will now oversee their local elections. They are the ones who will oversee and certify the final vote counts. They are the ones who can throw out provisional ballots. They are the ones who can simply “lose” enough ballots from different precincts to overturn an election or to reduce Democratic votes. Even in a Republican county, that matters because a few hundred votes less for state offices and US senators from many counties adds to a loss for Democrats. Now multiply that scenario across multiple Republican states. They are perfecting their ability to steal elections, and we can do very little to stop them.

Whether Trump runs again is immaterial. If he does, Republicans will overturn enough votes in the seven key states to give him a win. If he does not, another equally corrupt man will take his place, and the same will happen. Imagine a Youngkin type (or Youngkin himself) who is far more articulate and smoother than Trump in his lies being the nominee. That is a huge danger because Republicans have one goal, and that is ultimate power to turn the country into an authoritarian state permanently controlled by Republicans.

Those are my biggest fears, and I hope I’m totally wrong about how unscrupulous and dirty local Republicans are in their determination to win.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/30/georgia-county-purges-democrats-from-election-board-and-cancels-sunday-voting