Why seize voting machines? What was the goal there?

[Dr. Jack]

I've been hearing a lot about these Executive Orders and other discussions among Trump and his group of fascist goblins related to seizing voting machines. The fact that it has never been done before, all of the experts saying that would have been extremely illegal, and even many Trump's own people saying "fuck no, absolutely not, I'm getting involved with that" is a pretty good sign of just how horrific of an idea that Trump was playing around with. However, I'm still a bit fuzzy on what exactly seizing voting machines was going to accomplish for Trump. If Trump had somehow done it, what would have been the goal at that point? What were they actually going to do with those machines and how would that have helped in the overall attempt to steal the election from Biden?

I understand that this is all incredibly serious and frightening, I just don't fully understand why it is so serious and frightening.

[bullimiami]

1. Chaos misdirection confusion. Trying to create an opening to take advantage.

[Tommy Carcetti]

2. An indefinite "audit" that would create a cloud over the transition of power.

To the extent I'm sure Trump might have sought to petition the Courts to enjoin Biden's inauguration while the "audit" was being "conducted."

Hopefully the Courts would have told him to pound sand as they did on other occasions. But it would still have been a last gasp gambit by Trump to attempt to hold onto power.

[Pantagruel]

3. Seizing voting machines

creates an aura that something was "wrong" with the totals despite the FACT it was probably the most closely watched election ever.

Further, it essentially disqualifies those machines from future use because of the possibility and suspicion of tampering. Huge, needless expense.

[greenjar_01]

4. Thank you for asking

I had the same question!

[cilla4progress]

5. CHAOS exactly.

Their drunken monkey god's complete and obvious playbook.

[tanyev]

6. They would claim that they found all kinds of proof that the election was stolen.

Concrete examples of said proof would, of course, never be made available for anyone else to review.

[LymphocyteLover]

15. YUP. They can make up all kinds of BS and just say the proof is on the hard drives

but never actually show the proof, and enough people would believe it

[Haggard Celine]

7. I'm guessing that they were going to alter the machines somehow

and show that there were discrepancies between the totals from the machines and the official numbers certified by the states. Trump never proves any of his assertions; he merely creates enough doubt so that the facts can be disputed. If enough people fell for his bullshit, it could have given him enough momentum to claim fraud and many people, probably close to half of them, were just gullible enough to fall for it.

He said at one time that he wanted to have another election. If that had happened, he most likely would have won because he would have made mail-in voting impossible. He was grasping at straws to find some way, any way, of invalidating the election he knew he'd lost.

[FakeNoose]

8. Destroying the proof that they lost - once they do that, they've "won"

The goal was more or less to set the precedent that they CAN do it. It's going to be their standard MO if the Dems don't start passing laws to control these RWNJs.

[Gaugamela]

9. Salon: So what was Trump's plan after seizing the voting machines?

The article’s conclusion:

Do you figure that challenges to the electoral votes of at least those states whose machines were seized would happen in the House and Senate? Do you figure the joint session would devolve into, yes, chaos? Do you figure some kind of motion would be made and some kind of vote taken that the entire clusterfuck should be suspended and the election should be "thrown into the House," as the saying goes?

And if all of that should come to pass, well, you know as well as I do what the outcome of a vote in the House would be: Trump would be declared the victor and he would remain in office.

So maybe that was the plan all along: chaos. Does chaos sound like it would appeal to anyone you know?

https://www.salon.com/2022/02/04/what-was-plan-after-seizing-the-voting-machines-a-very-outcome/

[gristy]

13. Exactly. I had posted that below before I even read your post or this article.

Chaos was the goal, and, indeed, it remains the goal.

[Runningdawg]

10. Everything he does has one motivation - to start the next civil war.

[haele]

11. Tampering with and spoiling them. Forcing states to buy new machines.

I'm sure the seized machines would not be the less secure ES &S machines, but when election officials will need to purchase the replacements for machines compromised due to "audits", that will be the brand that provides special discounts to the states.

Haele

[gristy]

12. Chaos was the goal.

[gibraltar72]

14. I always thought every move was to create doubt.

That would give them a semi legitimate right to hold up the certifications. It just got weirder and weirder, as one after another their plans failed.