Political science lesson no. 538 from the Trump presidency: Overturning election results is an agency problem. That is, incumbents cannot do it alone, they need accomplices who will execute key steps at a lower or a different branch of government.

But lower level agents are the ones most likely to suffer legal consequences if that attempt fails. As a result, they are most reluctant to help when the incumbent needs it the most: when an attempt to overturn the election is unlikely to succeed because the incumbent lost big.

Key local officials in swing states chose not to be Trump’s useful idiots. Let’s see how many he will find in Congress.

A somewhat technical perspective on this: https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/campuspress.yale.edu/dist/6/1038/files/2016/06/Rundlett-Svolik-2016-APSR-28nvedc.pdf