Election shenanigans and sports analogies

Politics & Elections
1

I have anxiety about the possibility that Trump may somehow steal the election. I thought it might help reduce stress to compare some of the potential shenanigans with the ways a sports team might cheat. I realize that sports don’t carry any real life implications, so in a way this is silly, but I thought it might be fun to discuss.

  1. Misinformation campaigns, fake ballot boxes, general attempts at manipulation by lying, etc. My analogy for this level of cheating is a player breaking the rules. Things like throwing a spitball or using a corked bat, deflating a football, flopping to exaggerate a foul, etc.

  2. Making it harder to vote. Things like TX Governor Abbott limiting counties to one drop off box, the recent SCOTUS decision that all WI mail in ballots must arrive by 11/3, kicking voters of the registry, etc. My analogy for this level is an official being payed off to favor one team by being strict with fouls against one team and lenient with the other team. A good example would be referee Tim Donaghy and his manipulation of NBA games he was betting on.

  3. Manipulating the vote count. Hacking voting machines, forcing the counting to come to an early end, etc. At this point the analogies become more strained, because I can’t think of something that has actually happened in real life. A hypothetical example would be an NBA referee calling one team’s goals 3-pointers even when it’s obvious it was a 2-pointer.

  4. Ignoring the final tally. Let’s say Biden is ahead in PA when the vote counting is over, but the state legislature sends a slate of Trump electors claiming that the count was incorrect. A hypothetical example would be the officials declaring the losing team the winner. The scoreboard at the end of the Super Bowl says Steelers 30 - Buccaneers 20. After the game Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, hands the Lombardy trophy to Tom Brady, the Buccaneers QB and claims that the Steelers were cheating the whole time so they don’t deserve to win.

Do these analogies to sports cheating even make sense, or is this a silly exercise? What do you all think of the possibility of scenario 3 or 4 occurring?

2

For 3 and 4, a good analogy for ending the count early or declaring the wrong winner would be the limited “official challenges” that teams have in the NFL. Even when the refs get it wrong, you only get to make them review and correctly call the play a limited number of times until the previous call stands. Even if that bad call is made on the final scoring play that changes the outcome of the game and it’s clear in a replay video, too bad. The rules only allow for the refs to screw up so many times.

Pretty silly, yeah. But we can still have fun with it.