Staging a debate over the outcome of an election, meanwhile, with the loser pressing unsubstantiated claims from the White House and asking at least one election official in Georgia to help him find the votes to reverse the outcome, seems far different. “On this one, it’s just going to the fundamentals,” said Larry Sabato, editor in chief of Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a political handicapping site at UVA’s Center for Politics. “Are we going to maintain a democratic republic? … This is serious business and people are starting to wake up to it.”