The path to destroy American democracy runs through Georgia | Laurence H Tribe and Dennis Aftergut

Trumpism's route to the White House is paved with bricks of election theft in the battleground state

The latest election-protecting lawsuit filed this week in Georgia goes straight to the heart of the contest in the country over the survival of freedom's most basic institutions: our vote and the rule of law. The suit is also vital to the more immediate outcome of this election, and whether Donald Trump can find a way to win by any means necessary.

Trump and his Maga allies seek to permanently dismantle the architecture of government established by our founders 235 years ago. The route there this November runs through Georgia, a key battleground state where undoing any electoral victory by Kamala Harris would be vital to Trump's return to power. Trump and his acolytes will do whatever it takes to win. That includes not certifying the people's actual vote.

Laurence H Tribe is the Carl M Loeb University professor and professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School

Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy