Americans are understandably freaked out about the possibility of disruption in the elections today. I get the concern. But every doomsday scenario falls down in practice. If we can just tune out the noise, the process at the polls is most likely to be refreshingly mundane.
I have run a nationwide election protection program. It’s real work to get people to dedicate a full day to helping others. It’s much harder to recruit bodies to hunt for fraud: Because fraud at scale doesn’t really happen; that sort of snipe hunt doesn’t get many takers. And intimidation? Keyboard warriors love to act out online, but to actually show up is a totally different thing. They would be thrown out of the polls. They would be risking jail, because intimidating voters is a crime local officials are very prepared to enforce.
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What if the federal government sends armed agents, including immigration officers, to polling sites to suppress turnout and maintain power? Not only is it emphatically not legal, it’s not practical. There are almost 100,000 polling places. The logistics of an intimidation operation don’t work countrywide.
Here’s what I believe will happen: The federal government will se...