Sep 6, 2020 - Politics & Policy

Inside the post-election "war games"

Axios

People voting. — In August, a voter casts a primary ballot at a drive-through voting station in Barre, Vt. Photo: Lisa Rathke/AP

In today's WashPost Outlook section, Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown law professor and co-founder of the Transition Integrity Project, tells the inside story of post-election simulations that included veteran operatives from each party:

In each scenario, Team Trump — the players assigned to simulate the Trump campaign and its elected and appointed allies — was ... unconstrained right out of the gate, and Team Biden struggled to get out of reaction mode. In one exercise ... Team Trump’s repeated allegations of fraudulent mail-in ballots led National Guard troop[s] to destroy thousands of ballots in Democratic-leaning ZIP codes, to applause on social media from Trump supporters. Over and over, Team Biden urged calm, national unity and a fair vote count. ... Team Trump repeatedly attempted to exploit ambiguities and gaps in the legal framework. (There are more than you might think.) Team Trump repeatedly sought ... to persuade state GOP allies to send rival slates of electors to Congress when the popular vote didn’t go its way.

Keep reading.

Go deeper: In our Deep Dive about virus-era voting that hit your in-box just after 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, we helped you prepare for a protracted and chaotic count.

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Inside the post-election "war games"

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