a rightie message is coalescing

There's a risk of the right's becoming complacent after Joe Biden's catastrophic debate loss (and this was one of the few times that commentators on both sides can agree it was a loss), but on the right, a message seems to be coalescing: Donald Trump now has enough momentum to overcome any margin of fraud. The people saying this point to certain signs, e.g., betting odds, snap polls that have swung significantly in Trump's favor since the debate, the sea change occurring in the African-American community, the battleground states that were already aligning more and more in Trump's favor even before the debate, etc.

If this new rightie narrative catches on, it will then become possible for Trump to win and for righties still to maintain that the 2024 election was rife with fraud. This will leave most of us in the awkward position of cheering election results while simultaneously still distrusting the electoral process. It's probably going to take a lot more than huge momentum to convince people that the system has been rehabilitated. 

I admit I'm one of those people: at this point, I'm not even sure—if someone were to challenge me—that I know what can be done to restore trust. Suggestions like paper ballots are a step in the right direction, but is that enough? Hell, no. 

So... what else needs to be done? I fervently hope that better minds than mine are working on a solution. A solution would certainly have to involve much greater transparency and integrity in the electoral process. No more blocking-up of windows, no more sudden 3 a.m. drop-offs of ballots that are all for Biden, no more voting-machine "errors" admitted to only years after the election, and no more declarations that vote-counting has ended—only for the count (well, "count") to resume once the poll watchers have been ushered out. And while we're at it, no more un-updated voter rolls allowing illegals and dead people to vote. And make election fraud a crime punishable by death, tantamount to treason, which in turn means: catch the guilty, make examples of them, then execute them. 

Robert Heinlein had the right idea.

My mother, working at a union within a union, was a dedicated Democrat voter, but she never put two and two together: in every other respect, she was a conservative, tough-on-crime Republican who would see a nasty criminal on TV and shout, "Chop'm into two thousand pieces!" at the screen. Mom would have agreed with Heinlein, and so do I. No mercy.

ADDENDUM: more pushback against "Trump lied!"