Because the Stop the Steal (of our country) sentiment was held, the stop the steal, in its literal sense, was a logical next step.

The literal stolen election idea was believed before it was proven because of the larger belief. The election being stolen was a lie, so that’s a big part of why the capital attack was milder than it could have otherwise been.

Two other possibilities instead of the president losing the election by larger numbers across three states.

The election was fraudulent, and not a lie. It was true, that it was literally stolen. If this actually happened, it would have been a chaotic nightmare.

The other possibility, being an election so close that the normal amount of fraud in a national election could have overturned the results. Or it could have led to a moment like the 2000 election where the outcome was determined by SCOTUS.

This second scenario is the one I anticipated and of which informed my vote as a way to diminish this risk as much as possible.