Let’s be honest: we need nationwide election reforms. Purging of voter rolls and gerrymandering are disenfranchising a large fraction of our population, all so a minority can maintain power.
What’s more, it wasn’t too long ago that election security was a big concern around these parts. Remember Diebold and concern that they’d stolen the election for Bush?
So, I propose a bargain. Federal funding for states that implement improved election security. Possible measures include: automatic recounts and audits, random audits, user verifiable paper trails, improved access to state IDs, etc. Also important would be concrete and orderly steps to take in the event that sufficient fraud is discovered to swing an election. In exchange, voter registration has to be made easier, purging voters has to be made harder, and redistricting processes have to be turned over to citizen commissions or some similar non-partisan and difficult to corrupt entity.
Ideally, I’d say that if you have enough felons to swing an election, you have a problem with your system that needs to be addressed. It’s better to let felons vote than to risk disenfranchisement using trumped up charges, but that’s my opinion and would probably be a poison pill in this context.
Regardless, this way, we can ameliorate the fears of the people who insist the election was stolen going forward, and we can cut back on disenfranchisement of voters. It’s a win-win, in my book.
Remember, the key is to make the people who have bought the lies feel heard by addressing their concerns, where possible, so that they can see that we’re not their enemy. As long as they see us as the enemy it blocks their ability to calm down and unify.
Edit to add: Also! Include funding to ensure that infrastructure is evenly funded by the number of people. That the “blue-shift” exists is a travesty, and spurs on a lot of the problem we’re seeing. Increase funding to count the blue districts faster, and the blue-shift disappears.