Excellent points Bartholomew. My and my family's experiences has convinced me that a certain level of paranoia is a good thing when thinking about politics in general and elections in particular. Where I grew up, election day was typical a day of miraculous resurrections, with the newly risen eager to vote.

John, my friend the judge has reminded me repeatedly that the people he deals with are not rocket scientists. If they were actually capable of conceiving and taking seriously the probable consequences of their actions they wouldn't be dealing with him. He's never encountered a miscreant who said, "I knew I'd never get away with this." As for the 19,000 figure, the thinking would probably be "Who's gonna notice or care about a measly 19,000 ballots."