Were the mail in returns against the poll? Or only the in-persons? I know in my area of Texas, the mail-in returns were more Dem than the polls, but the in-persons were much more Rep. Could it be that one side focused on in-person voting and self selected into in person votes.... perhaps. Could it be hacking or other fraud, not very likely. Such accusations need a lot of support of proof, because faith in democracy depends on faith in elections. I don't think we're seeing enough proof anywhere. (I would look to any place that has a mandatory recount where ballots are hand counted). I don't think any Texas races were that close though.
> And the polling error was worse in 2020 that 2016.
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The votes haven't even been finished counting in 2020, and that there are shifts over time in the ratios is a well-noted phenomenon. While we're well past the point where that realistically effects the outcome, assessments of polling errors that don't effect the overall outcome may easily be premature (and those started getting made before the race was called, based on the then-current state of the count as if it was final.)
If I were going to try an influence an election via voting machine software, I would affect only some percentage of votes so it wouldn't be too obvious--if there was also mail in ballots, it wouldn't matter.
I might also target only key locations--those on the margins where it wouldn't be suspicious.
If I were to do this in favor of the Republican candidate, you'd probably find that mail-in votes even in non-pandemic years skewed more Democratic. You'd also find that polls seemed to indicate that Republican voters were "shy" and it keeps messing up the polls.
