Republicans don’t miss a trick. Their guy went down to defeat on Nov. 3, with about 5 million more Americans picking Democrat Joe Biden over GOP standard-bearer Donald Trump.

Vote counts from the states also put Biden over the 270-vote threshold he needed to win the presidency in the Electoral College.

Sounds like Biden won. Sounds like he will be sworn in on January 20 as the 46 President of the United States, the bastion of democracy in the world, and a trend-setter for free and fair elections.

Not so fast. Slick, sharp-tongued GOP politicians see the world differently. These pols, who usually stand charged with using voter suppression tactics to hold on to power, are converts to the election integrity movement.

They see election flaws, separate and unequal application of election standards and outright corruption spreading across the land faster than the deadly, novel Coronavirus.

Rep. Jim Jordan gives voice to these concerns during regular national television appearances (And here too).

Republican politicians, intent on pleasing the Trump base and the president, are falling over themselves to echo this reality.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a rapid Trump supporter from Florida, even upped the ante in a move the mainstream media and the Democratic Party should not ignore. He has called for election audits in the states and a delay in certifying the vote.

GOP legislators in Pennsylvania agree. They want an audit of the election. They also want certification of the vote delayed, pending completion of the audit (See here and here). Without certification of the vote, Biden does not get the state’s electoral college votes, which helped him win the election.

No joke. These guys are serious.

Maybe the Trump campaign will continue to suffer legal defeats when judges conclude their lawsuits lack standing, merit or proof.

But that may not be the only point of the lawsuits. The legal allegations make for good copy in the press, and let Republican hacks repeat fraud charges to reporters and social media consumers.

The repetition breeds the desired outcome, according to a GOP elected official, who has called for “extraordinary measures” in Pennsylvania to delay vote certification in her state.

Yahoo News reports, “‘We’ve just gotten a lot of allegations,” State Rep. Dawn Keefer said, referring to what she said was a flurry of calls and e-mails from voters ‘who are concerned and outraged by the circumstances surrounding this election.'”

Delay long enough, progressive radio icon Thom Hartmann and Greg Palast, an investigative journalist, have warned, and Trump and Biden may not have enough electoral votes to become president. This would turn the decision over to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats. But the Constitutional provision for such matters gives the power to name the next president to the Republicans, in this instance, anyway.

And Rob Kall, the editor-in-chief at OpEd News, dunks the ball in a November 11 article at his publication.

What’s more, the possible drive to keep Trump in power is part of a larger narrative to maintain GOP hegemony. Consider: Sen. Lindsey Graham, fresh off a reelection victory, exhorts Republicans to challenge the election, or else.

He warns that his weakened party will never win another presidential election if Democrats keep getting to vote at home by mail (See also).

So stay tuned. It may seem that Trump and his supporters are bad losers.

Hopefully, that is all it turns out to be.

Time will tell, though, whether they actually steal the election by assuming the mantle of election integrity.