I’m not one for conspiracy theories, and we don’t have any evidence to back up any sort of claims of rigging or election fraud. In fact, the various lawsuits Trump initiated in the last cycle and audits and recounts and so on provided a pretty damning pile of evidence for “not rigged”.
Republicans aren’t rigging elections themselves. There’s no tomfoolery going on with voting machines, or people voting twice, or similar. They’re “rigging” it with legal means – disenfranchising voters, suppressing turnout, financing third party candidates to peel votes away from the other side, gerrymandering districts, and using massive propaganda systems to influence who decides to vote and what they choose when they do vote.
All said, though, we can always make the system more robust, and increase both voters’ confidence in the system and allay any fears of actual rigging. But election reforms are often a “Democrat” issue, so almost any Republican will oppose meaningful reforms that don’t do one of the things above to suppress voters.
Blackmail is the first step, to get them to comply.
Next comes the bribes and money. That’s what the Republicans are addicted to and afraid of losing. Russia spends a LOT of money on a LOT of politicians, and they step out of line, the faucet gets turned off.
After the bribes come the subtle threats and constant low-key demonstrations of power. This is where Russia notices someone is toeing the line or stepping out of control and they reign them back in with a well-placed threat delivered in a way even Boebert can understand. This is the “we picked your kids up at school and dropped them off at their grandparents house today” kind of thing.
They’re in deep and can’t get out without serious harm to themselves and probably their families. I’d feel sorry for them, but they’re all a bunch of shithead traitors who did this to themselves, and are now destroying our country.