It's understandable people are somewhat skeptical of the 2020 presidential election results — or at least certain aspects of said election — given the pandemic-related rush by many states to set up and implement mass voting by mail, with all its moving parts and diminished transparency. That's on top of certain state courts, secretaries of state and election officials making constitutionally-suspect eleventh-hour changes to election procedures.

Still, real concerns about election integrity due to huge shifts in votes that happen weeks after the fact due to late arriving and/or counted ballots are one thing. Believing that Democratic election officials in multiple battleground states colluded to deny President Trump his rightful victory — assisted by Dominion Voting Systems, George Soros, the Clinton Foundation and the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and China — is something else altogether. It's the stuff of a highly improbable conspiracy theory, especially given such an outlandish proposition requires the cooperation of certain Republican election officials and federal judges, including one appointed by Trump himself.

This gap between genuine worries regarding election integrity and a fanciful conspiracy theory is reflected in the approach of Trump's legal team and others fighting on his behalf to overturn Joe Biden's apparent presidential election victory. In the courtroom, Trump's lawyers make very narrow arguments that come nowhere near the breathless allegations of systemic fraud and widespread electoral malfeasance they claim in public. Nonetheless, Trump is getting his metaphorical arse handed to him in court.

Likewise, Sidney Powell — formerly a member of Trump's legal team, maybe — had promised to "release the kraken" in a pair of lawsuits that turned out to be rife with mistakes, including naming someone as a plaintiff who had not consented to be a plaintiff, as well as numerous typos. So far, the kraken looks more like a guppy.

Anyone expecting to find evidence of a massive conspiracy that stole the election from Trump is apt to be disappointed due to Occam's razor in the form of recount results and how computer programs work in the real world.

It is conceivable Biden received a record number of votes, given the total number of ballots cast in 2020 substantially eclipsed those of the presidential elections of 2008, 2012 and 2016. It's also worth noting that in Georgia, Democrats spent the last four years engaged in an aggressive voter-registration effort that seems to have paid off.

Trump himself received a record number of votes in an apparently unsuccessful re-election bid; no small achievement. He also outperformed with regard to minority voters, much to the surprise of pollsters and political pundits.

In other words, unusual or unexpected results sometimes happen in elections, without the benefit of an implausible conspiracy. After all, almost no one thought Trump could break through Democrats' "blue wall" four years ago to win the presidency. But he did.

Biden appears to have returned the favor.