July 21 was the day President Biden announced he would not accept the nomination of his party for another term as president. It is now 20 days later and we have Vice President Kamala Harris officially nominated for president along with a vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, announced on Tuesday, Aug. 6. The campaign raised hundreds of millions of dollars, and recruited thousands of volunteers. Excitement is in the air. Something is bugging me. I don’t want to be disappointed again.

I’m referring to the 2016 election. Like many Democrats I worked hard to elect Hillary Clinton. She may not have had a chance in Iowa, yet we felt the rest of the country would pull through for her. As far as we know, they did not and we know what happened next. After the 2020 election, we must be prepared for shenanigans in November.

Attorney Marc Elias believes Republicans already have a plan to steal the 2024 election. “I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election (in November),” Elias told Rolling Stone Magazine. “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.”

The Republican plan goes something like this, (h/t Iowa Democrat Kim Mathers):

Position Republican election deniers on election boards in swings states and across the country. Rolling Stone and American Doom identified nearly 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists, currently working as county election officials. These officials have questioned the validity of elections or delayed or refused to certify results. At least 20 of them have refused or delayed certification in recent years.

County election boards with election denier members would refuse to certify elections where their candidate loses. This results in state results that can’t be certified, they assert. If they can deny 270 electoral votes to a candidate other than theirs, the election goes to the U.S. House of Representatives. There, each state gets one vote and a simple majority wins. In this scenario, someone who lost in the electoral college and who lost the popular vote could be installed as president.

This scenario doesn’t keep me up at night. It does nag at me. Republicans, according to Elias, “are counting on not just that they can disrupt the election in big counties, they are counting on the fact that if they don’t certify in several small counties, you cannot certify these statewide results.”

By all accounts, the November election is expected to be close. Harris has multiple paths to 270 electoral votes and those paths depend upon fair play in the conduct of our elections. Because our election system has been so bulletproof, we take it for granted there will be fair reckoning of votes cast.

We mustn’t lose sleep over concerns about Republican shenanigans because most of us don’t control what election officials may do. Our election system held steady in the past, and we must trust it will again. With awareness of the potential disruptions, let us hope such awareness is proper inoculation against disappointment.