While this is all shtick, it will, if left unchallenged, cause serious and lasting harm to each and every one of you. Every Republican. Every Democrat. Every Independent.

When one side can just shout “fraud” without actual proof that it is real and that outcomes were affected, so as to delegitimize outcomes, elections will become meaningless. And that is their goal: If you lose the faith, you won’t participate. The right to vote and be heard — which many people throughout the world still struggle for — will be taken from you, not by force, but by surrender.

Every voter and every candidate for public office, whether it is for town council or president, deserves a fair election which counts only lawful votes. And in those elections where there is actual evidence of improper votes that actually matter, we have a legal system to find and remove those votes. The system actually works.

But the present assertions are of a more sinister ilk. They are not serious and there is no suggestion that the few ineligible votes that likely did occur (as they always do) could have any impact on a statewide outcome. Rather, this is about hoping you all lose the faith and don’t participate.