I appreciate you providing these links. And to be clear, I've read them each time you post them. They're edifying.

What I think you might be overlooking is this: what if I don't do that mandatory duty in the timeframe stipulated? OK, so I broke the statute and related state constitution mandate. I may receive a mild punishment. Plus, now the board can demand the information. What if I don't heed the demand? Well then you might bring a lawsuit. What if I hire an attorney with the express intention of stalling, and part of what the lawyer does is moves the case before a sympathetic judge?

Even without a sympathetic judge, the lawsuit may take months. Remember, a fair legal hearing is part of "your" rules that you need to play by. Whoops. We missed the deadline, but we will see how the court case plays out sometime in 2025. What if the judge fast tracks it, I'm held to account, and I simply refuse to produce the results and choose to serve time? National scandal. Armed militias in Michigan activate. Still doesn't matter, because we miss the deadline. What happens after the deadline is missed become immaterial to the federal election, i.e., meaningless details to the larger plan. Maybe I serve some time like so many of Trump's collaborators. Maybe not. Remember, this is an attempted coup. Laws are to be used to leverage the attempt when it's useful and ignored when it's not. It's a bit like revolution: if it's successful, the former laws no longer apply anyway. It's a gambit.

The problem you have here is the same problem Democrats have had for almost a decade. You keep saying "but there are rules," and I keep telling you, "what if I don't give a fuck about your rules unless they serve my goal of overthrowing your rules?" You're left screaming about how it's not fair. Meanwhile, it installs Trump as president, so who cares how the case plays out? The damage is irrevocably done.

Meeting the federal deadline for state-level certification in almost every state is considered a ministerial duty. That means that it would only involve civil or administrative penalties, i.e., a light slap on the wrist at best. For criminal conduct, it would need to be elevated to obstruction of federal elections. This would be a federal crime and therefore pardonable.

Thanks for the link, but the plan The Nation outlined doesn't require fake electors or fraudulent documents. The only potential misdeed here is simply a failure to meet a federal deadline. It's related to the previous attempt insofar as it's an attempt to undermine American democracy, but this current plan is much more sound, involves much less legal culpability on the part of anyone involved, and generally appears to be constitutionally valid. Which is to say, the Republicans learned. The Democrats did not.

The bottom line is, overthrowing democracy is either a meaningless administrative infraction or a federal crime that will be pardoned. See the problem?