The WaPo oped concludes:

The great danger for the Republican Party is that the president’s claims will shine a spotlight on whether proof of widespread fraud exists to support their positions. Again, such proof doesn’t exist.

Rather than suffer a series of defeats, Republican lawyers should evaluate the evidence and settle some of those cases they joined reflexively to counter Democrats. As a general matter, Republicans are on the strongest ground in the cases in which they are arguing to uphold existing state laws against Democratic attempts to weaken protections. In such situations, the elected legislature and governor have made a policy judgment that should be respected. The Supreme Court has been reluctant to allow unelected judges to overturn elected officials’ decisions, especially close to elections.

But in other cases Republicans need to guard against having their arguments for preventing fraud look like efforts to stop groups from voting because they might not support the president. That more Democrats than Republicans seem to be getting ready to vote by mail makes the president’s rhetoric on mail-in ballots sound like a blatant attempt to stop non-supporters’ votes from being counted.

Then there is the question of what happens after Election Day, in particular to Republican candidates in tight races. Imagine a down-ballot Republican candidate clinging to a narrow lead in a state — especially a presidential battleground state — where Republicans are litigating, pre- or post-election, on the basis of fraud.

That Republican — picture Senate candidates in Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, Arizona, Iowa or Montana who want to defend their leads — would have the added burden of explaining away Trump’s claims that the results are rigged or fraudulent. In such a situation the president’s words are certain to be used against those candidates.

The president’s absence of commitment to the peaceful transfer of power and his call to invalidate millions of mailed-in and absentee ballots are his latest actions painting the Republican Party into a dangerous corner. Granting his wish to disenfranchise millions of voters without evidence of widespread fraud would actually cause a “rigged” election and threaten a peaceful transfer of power. As when he urged his North Carolina supporters to vote both by mail and in-person, Trump would be the arsonist firefighter committing the crime about which he complains.