I went back and did a Google Search around the 2016 election looking for the term "stolen election". The majority of hits coming from Democrats right? No, the majority were coming from Republicans BEFORE the election, especially by then candidate Trump, about how the election was about to be rigged and stolen from him.
The majority of Democratic complaints involved voter suppression, including the 300,000 people claimed to be stopped from voting in Wisconsin. In fact people at the time were claiming it was a Republican program to disenfranchise voters. This program the "Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck Program" was suspended in 2019. Hold that thought.
The President claims to be successful. Well in this case we agree. He is so polarizing that he actually roused the biggest turnout in history. In this sense the Democrats maybe lucked into picking the best person. By picking Joe Biden, they picked the person that would cause the least amount of controversy. He was not Black, or Gay, or a Socialist, or anyone that the Republicans could focus on. He as "Sleepy Joe" the same way a muscle car that was dressed up as stock would be called a "Sleeper" at the dragstrip. And while social media was the avenue of "Conservative" information prior to the 2016 election, it was the same social media along with word of mouth, that spread the anti-Trump meme. I will apologize if I snoozed many of my Facebook friends, not because of pro-Trump listings, but of the incessant anti-Trump posts. But this convinced me that Trump had "released the Kraken", the group of voters who might sit at home and lament the election of someone they did not agree with. The very language that the President used, backfired on him, not just to rouse his base, but to also rouse the opposition. It was not so much that Joe Biden won, it was that the President lost. He alienated and insulted so many people that they were tired and just said "Your Fired".
Now, did the Democrats do things better this time? Did they make sure that people who were shut out from the election vote? Did the elimination of the "Crosscheck" program bring more voters into the system? Did they do a better job of making sure that the people had the right credentials? Did the mail in ballots find a way legally around the blockade that the Republicans set up before? If we could analyze each person we might be able to quantify this. For now, and after the latest Supreme Court Decision (or lack of a decision), it looks like it will be time to end this battle and prepare for the next one.
Now voting by mail will not go away. In fact I predict it will increase with out problems. I believe within 10 years, we will be voting electronically from the safety of our houses, with blockchain security and faster election results than ever before. There is the chance of reduced anonymity. That is to be worked out, but no more so than the lawn sign or bumper sticker on your car. Most voting started out as public proclamations, maybe we will go back to that. But for now what we have is the best system and hats off to the legions of workers who volunteer to keep it that way.
PS - At this time we will not have to deal with this, but if the Texas suit was heard it might have led to the end of the Electoral College. Yes it is in the Constitution but it has been amended before and will be amended again. If you are not in a swing state, your vote basically does not count, or has a much lesser value. If you are in a Democratic State or a Republican state the same applies. Maybe some day we will find the balance between raw vote and the Electoral College, but not today.
