They genuinely believe they're identifying and defeating a mass fraud conspiracy. Fox News and worse have done a phenomenal job of building echo chambers that convince them the libs are a bunch of cheating charlatans and that's the only reason they have the popular vote.

Their worldview is completely wrapped around this and so anything to the contrary is ignored as evidence of the conspiracy.

That’s why they are calling it voter fraud. In their eyes anybody can just steal a ballot out of somebody’s mailbox and fill it out and send it in. And nobody would know. So because it’s possible, it means the democrats are doing it and that’s the only reason they win.

Keep in mind that even though Trump won in 2016 he said there was voter fraud that made it so he didn’t win the popular vote. They have been setting up this narrative for years if not decades.

Of course the republicans in power know exactly what they’re doing and why.

There’s no gotcha moment for people that ignore reality.

They genuinely believe that “the other side” is doing it too, so if they don’t do it then they will lose and they will have failed the “majority”.

Answer; “It’s part of the game everyone is playing.”