Tom Corbett: 2020 election wasn’t stolen. We all must fight against the Big Lie.

All eyes have been on Fulton County, Ga. of late, where a grand jury indicted Donald Trump and 18 others for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Much of the attention has been focused on then-President Trump’s phone call urging the Georgia Secretary of State to “find” the votes needed to overturn the result there, and on efforts by Trump allies to put forward a slate of false electors to certify a Trump victory in the state, despite a vote count in which Joe Biden prevailed.

But the indictments also shed light on a voting system breach in Coffee County, Ga., in which county elected officials gave Trump allies unauthorized access to the county’s voting system, which by law is to be restricted from the public, including operatives of political candidates.

Another Fulton County, this one 700 miles north and right here in Pennsylvania, has been the site of similar chicanery.

This past April, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled against two Fulton County, Pa. commissioners for secretly allowing an out-of-state third party to copy private voting machine data in order to help efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Fortunately, these commissioners were unsuccessful. The county received contempt sanctions from our state’s highest court for its participation in accessing and tampering with voting machines, and was required to reimburse Pennsylvania’s Department of State for legal costs and fees in seeking to protect the machines from outside examinations, when there was no evidence of irregularities.

The effort in Fulton County, Pa. to undermine our democracy was thankfully thwarted, but that wasn’t the end of it. The episode took another twist that could be dismissed as absurd, if not for the stakes.

A cybersecurity firm recently filed a lawsuit against a Pennsylvania business owner and a Michigan attorney who engaged the firm to conduct the investigation of the voting equipment in Fulton County. The firm accuses the two of refusing to pay after it failed to find evidence of election fraud.

There was no evidence that the Fulton County, Pa. voting machines had been “hacked internationally or domestically or were pre-configured to favor one candidate,” according to the lawsuit. Nevertheless, when the firm failed to produce (or presumably fabricate) such evidence, it was not paid.

That was not the only step those two individuals are alleged to have taken to subvert the election. The Pennsylvanian, Bill Bachenberg, also served as a false Trump elector. The Michigan lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, has since been charged with illegally accessing voting machines in her home state.

This all points back to the 2020 election, now nearly three years past. What does this all portend for the future?

Despite the absence of even the slightest evidence of any widespread fraud or systemic problems in 2020, or in the elections since, such claims will not die. In fact, they have gained a solid foothold with the American public. A recent CNN poll found that roughly one-third of the electorate believed that “Biden did not legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency,” proving the adage that a lie repeated many times can become the truth.

The relentless efforts to deny the results of the 2020 election undermine the nation’s faith in our ability to conduct fair, transparent, and honest elections in the future.

That is why, as our nation approaches the 2024 election, we must be prepared to stand up against a repeat of the attempts at election subversion we have seen since 2020.

Election subversion — the potential theft of the will of the voters after the polls close on election day, and particularly before the results of the election are certified — threatens the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to each and every American voter. It damages the integrity of the entire operating system of American democracy by taking the will of the people and tossing it right out the window.

All of us — Republicans, Democrats, and Independents — must step up our involvement to protect our elections and our democracy. Become a poll worker on election day, or volunteer for voter assistance hotlines or other programs that help people exercise their right to vote. Learn election basics and defend our elections and our democratic institutions, whether in community discussions, online, or just among your friends. Spread accurate information and respond — respectfully but factually — to misinformation or misunderstanding about our elections.

Facts matter. Without them, our democracy falters. Let’s stand up for truth to protect our democracy.

Tom Corbett, a Republican and former Pennsylvania governor (2011-2015) and attorney general (2004-2010), is Pennsylvania chair of the nonpartisan group Keep Our Republic.