Does anyone still doubt that the election of 2020 was at least “stolen,” if not actually stolen? 

This column was chastised by, inter alia, one longtime friend in particular for saying early on after the 2020 election that it was stolen. The evidence then was still sketchy, and emotions ran high. Prudence, ah, dear Prudence, counseled caution. But temptation came in with a higher bid. Perhaps improvidently, this column took the higher bid. 

Donald Trump himself, of course, was never in doubt; he knew it was stolen.

Time passed. But time was never able to sway Trump: he was always, and still is today, steadfast in his belief that the 2020 election was stolen—and he never lets you forget it. Never let you forget it. Never lets you…

But even Truth has to be wary of sounding like a broken record: no one likes a bore—unless, perhaps, his name is Trump. For some reason, and for many people, Trump is never boring. 

There was always a way of nuancing (hereinafter approved as a verb) the claim of election theft: pivot to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal—double scandal, actually. 

The first scandal was the content on the laptop, some of which could not possibly be shown on a television screen to which children had access without risking angering the federal censors, who are in the business of approving broadcast licenses—but on a strictly nonpartisan basis, of course. 

The second, and more politically relevant, scandal was the letter that Tony Blinken, now our incompetent secretary of state, is said to have organized, which claimed that the laptop had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. He got fifty—50!—former “intelligence” hacks to join him in lying to the American people, all for the purpose of influencing the election.

Which it did. According to at least one poll (there may be others), enough voters said that had they known the laptop was real, they would have voted for Trump, and Trump would have won. 

Ever since, this column has recommended saying the 2020 election was “stolen” (always in quotes) in the sense that the media’s coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop story swung the election to Joe Biden. That claim is really incontrovertible. 

But wait! The dismissal of Trump’s claim of outright theft may have been premature.

It turns out there were, in fact, millions of invalid ballots cast in 2020. The Heartland Institute measured the effect of mail-in ballot “fraud” (for those who can stomach the term) or “irregularities” for those who can’t. Instead of trying to inspect ballots (which is impossible), Heartland simply asked people four questions. Here’s what they discovered:

• 21 percent of mail-in voters admitted that in 2020 they voted in a state where they were “no longer a permanent resident.”
• 21 percent of mail-in voters admitted that they filled out a ballot for a friend or family member.
• 17 percent of mail-in voters said they signed a ballot for a friend or family member “with or without his or her permission.”
• 19 percent of mail-in voters said that a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full, on their behalf.

Heartland concluded that 28.2 percent of respondents who voted by mail admitted to committing at least one kind of voter fraud and that their ballots should not have been counted.

“Because Joe Biden received significantly more mail-in votes than Donald Trump,” Heartland writes, “we conclude that the 2020 election outcome would have been different in the key swing states that Donald Trump lost by razor thin margins in 2020—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—under the 28.2 percent scenario.”

Heartland also analyzed the electoral results for the six swing states under every scenario, from 27 percent fraud down to 1 percent fraud. Only at a fraud level of 3 percent or less would Biden have won the electoral college.

So: Can we now say the election was stolen, or do we have to continue saying “stolen”? Did the voters know they were breaking the law? Do we care? Or do we care only that probably a significant number of people will do it again? The solution to the problem is to require in-person voting, as most European countries do.

Where does all that take us? It takes us to considering the upcoming 2024 election, and particularly the millions of illegal immigrants the Biden administration has flooded into this country. It would be stupid to assume they won’t be voting, as it would be stupid to assume they weren’t imported into this country precisely for that purpose. Here’s how they’ll get to vote:.

They’ll get a driver’s license. They’ll show the license at the polls. And they’ll vote. Could anything be simpler?

Nineteen states, and soon to be twenty, allow people to get a driver’s license without proof of citizenship. 

Several states have enacted laws requiring proof of U.S. citizenship for people registering to vote, but most have not. 

Voting in a federal election without being a U.S. citizen is a crime. Republicans should make every effort to see that the millions of illegal immigrants who will undoubtedly be encouraged by Democrats to vote illegally know the risk they are taking. Billboards and people standing outside polling areas with large signs might help.

Current polls may indicate that Trump will, or may, win the election in November. But you can be reasonably sure that the millions of Biden-imported illegal immigrants are not included in those polls. 

Donald Trump should make it clear (in a variety of languages) that his administration will prosecute illegal voters vigorously. Then at least some of the illegals, and perhaps many of them, might decide that it’s better simply to reside illegally in America without taking the risk of voting illegally, calling attention to themselves, and then being deported back to the sh–hole countries from which they came. 

Republicans everywhere should realize: this is a national, all-hands-on-deck emergency. The future of America may, and probably does, depend on limiting this election to Americans. 

Is that such an odd concept: America for Americans? 

President Reagan was right: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.” This November, we’ll find out how much this generation of Americans really cares. 

Daniel Oliver is Chairman of the Board of the Education and Research Institute and a Director of Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in San Francisco. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President Reagan, he was Executive Editor and subsequently Chairman of the Board of William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review.

Email Daniel Oliver at Daniel.Oliver@TheCandidAmerican.com.