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Donald Trump<\/strong> is continuing to lay the groundwork to contest the results of the November election, ramping up his lies about supposed \u201ccheating\u201d by Democrats in major cities. \u201cIf they didn\u2019t cheat, I wouldn\u2019t even be here today,\u201d he said<\/a> in Erie, Pennsylvania. \u201cYou know why? I wouldn\u2019t have to campaign.\u201d Singling out Philadelphia and Detroit, cities he targeted in 2020 with baseless claims of voter fraud as he sought to overturn his loss to Joe Biden<\/strong>, Trump insisted that if \u201cGod came down from a-high and said \u2018I am going to be your vote tabulator for this election,\u2019 I would leave this podium right now, because I wouldn\u2019t have to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey cheat so damn much,\u201d Trump falsely claimed to supporters in the battleground state.<\/p>\n The remarks were characteristically absurd. But they serve a purpose for the former president: to foster a sense of distrust about the integrity of the democratic process and make it easier for him to challenge it after the election, should he lose to Kamala Harris<\/strong> in November. \u201cWe saw a lot of activity in 2020 around peddling false claims and frivolous lawsuits,\u201d as Lindsay Daniels<\/strong>, senior director at the nonpartisan Democracy Fund, told<\/a> CNN. \u201cWe are already seeing signs now, stage-setting, that these things may be attempted again.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, the MAGA effort to potentially sow discord in the 2024 results has already begun. Trump hasn’t just been regurgitating the same lies about voter fraud and rigged election systems he spewed during the 2020 cycle. He and his allies have worked to build a more sophisticated infrastructure around those lies, including by preparing legal challenges to unfavorable results and by seeking more control over the election process itself. For example, in Georgia, pro-Trump members of the state elections board recently passed a rule<\/a> requiring ballots be counted by hand, which even some Republicans say could gum up a process that, despite Trump\u2019s claims to the contrary, was already secure. The move could \u201cundermine voter confidence and burden election workers,\u201d as Brad Raffensperger<\/strong>, Georgia\u2019s Republican secretary of state, said<\/a> of the rule after it was proposed this summer.<\/p>\n Of course, that\u2019s precisely the point\u2014to create confusion, a pretext for challenges, a delay Trump can exploit. That effort failed four years ago, and led to legal troubles for many involved\u2014including Trump himself, who faces criminal charges in two different election subversion cases. But while experts and officials expect the system to withstand Trump\u2019s latest round of attacks, his relentless attempts to throw sand in the gears of the process poses a real danger: \u201cThe right wing has gotten very energized and organized,\u201d as Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo<\/strong> told me<\/a> recently, and is working to \u201ccreate the conditions\u2026to be able to overturn the results this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n