From Jennifer Rubin at the Wash Post:

No one should underestimate the willingness of felon and former president Donald Trump to try to overturn the election if he does not prevail. He did it last time. He has already planted the seed of “illegal immigrants” voting — a baldfaced lie. And his lawyers are litigating nearly 200 suits trying to create barriers to voting, discard and disqualify ballots, and suggest that local officials can refuse to certify results. (They cannot.) They have even tried to challenge overseas and military ballots, engendering blowback from veterans’ groups. But there is a danger in exaggerating his ability to succeed with such gambits.

Referencing a breathless op-ed in the New York Times predicting election calamity, constitutional expert Richard H. Pildes reminded us that scenarios involving mischief by governors are unlikely. “In nearly all the swing states, the governors are Democrats, who are hardly going to be receptive to any entreaties by Trump,” he wrote. Even in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, “have done as much under fire as any political officials to prove their commitment to certifying an accurate, lawful count.” And although a few local boards might refuse to certify, there are remedies in court. (A Georgia court recently rejected the notion that officials could refuse to certify results.)

Modifications to the Electoral Count Act have made it extremely difficult for state legislatures to reverse the results (“Federal courts have ruled that changing election rules after the election, in the guise of ‘interpreting’ state election laws, violates due process,” Pildes explained) or for Congress to throw out electoral votes. (Not only has the threshold to make objections been raised, but a majority of both bodies would need to toss electoral votes.)…

None of this should encourage complacency. Instead, Trump’s transparent schemes should prompt democracy defenders to turn out in force and thereby prevent the electoral college outcome from coming down to a single state. Finally, the media and opinion makers should stay away from catastrophizing before the election and, once the votes are in, refrain from declaring that the election is “in dispute” because of bogus lawsuits.