A “just so” story, but this is not really true.
Every Presidential election in our country’s history has been definitively brought to an end by one thing above all: The concession of the loser.
The Bush v. Gore decision is a case in point: it’s wrongly remembered as having declared the winner. But it didn’t do that. It ruled on a particular recount issue. But Gore could have fought on by raising different issues with the recount.
So, what really and truly ended the 2000 election for good was Al Gore picking up the telephone and conceding to Bush in the wake of that SCOTUS decision.
The Electoral College can make a decision, and under the Constitution its word is final, but it doesn’t command an army to enforce it.
If Trump loses and wants to make a mockery of the 230+ year history of peaceful transfer of power, and I expect he will do so in some way since he has shattered so many other norms and has foregrounded his belief that this election will be rigged against him, no one can really stop him.
Then Americans as a whole will have to pull together to send him a loud and clear message that it is his time to go.
I don’t expect Trump’s most rabid supporters will be mature enough to do that, but I’d love to be proven wrong on this.