How do we know? How can we be so arrogant and disbelieving? Well, for one thing, clear-eyed Republicans, including the overwhelming majority of GOP election authorities, have said so — over and over again.

Former Missouri Republican Party Chairman John Hancock said it again over the weekend on a political radio show — the presidential election wasn’t stolen. Time to move on.

Widespread election fraud and illegal voting never happened. It’s a myth.

Another inconvenient truth for conspiracy peddlers is the fact that state and federal judges dismissed more than 50 lawsuits challenging the 2020 presidential election due to a lack of evidence.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is one of those Republican election officials who confirmed elections went smoothly and fairly in Missouri in 2020 under his leadership, though he is asking prosecutors to investigate two St. Charles County residents who may have voted here and in Florida.

So out of the 3 million or so ballots cast in Missouri on Nov. 3, 2020, there are at least two votes in question. If those allegations prove true, we’d still argue Ashcoft’s claims of a secure election are accurate. There was negligible fraud here and across the country. The truth is that the 2020 general election, which had historic turnout amid the coronavirus pandemic, was one of the safest, most secure elections ever.

So why is Ashcroft and the Missouri Legislature pushing a series of changes to Missouri voting laws to enhance election security? Those changes include things like requiring a photo ID to cast a ballot and ballot curing.

The answer is simple — politics. Talking about election fraud appeals to the Republican base. Say “election fraud” enough times, and many will believe it.

It is a tactic that works. A CNN poll released last week suggested that among Republicans, 78 percent say Biden did not win, and 54 percent believe there is solid evidence of that, despite the fact that no evidence exits.

Ashcroft is just following the Republican playbook and playing the game. Republican lawmakers across the country are capitalizing on Trump’s repeated claims of voter fraud to pass measures that Democrats say are really just efforts at voter suppression.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 18 states already have enacted 30 laws this year that will make it harder for Americans to vote. More restrictions, like the ones proposed in Missouri, are coming.

Ashcroft is careful to say the voting changes are not necessary to correct anything that happened in Missouri. That would reflect poorly on his leadership and contradict his previous claims of a safe and secure election. He just wants to be proactive. “We are not trying to enact legislation because something happened. We want to establish legislation that will prevent something from happening,” he said in a statement.

It also serves to keep the notion of election security and the notion of the Big Lie on the front burner for the 2022 midterm elections. It’s red meat for the GOP base.

We would like to see Ashcroft and state lawmakers focus their energies on making voting more accessible, such as by expanding early in-person voting like other states have already done. In many states, polling places are open before and after business hours and on weekends before Election Day. Why not do the same here in Missouri? For that matter, why not allow no-excuse absentee balloting?

Those are the kind of election changes that are really needed.

Voter fraud is unacceptable. We are fortunate it is, for the most part, nonexistent in our state. What Ashcroft and others should be working on is finding solutions that address real problems instead of pursuing policies that make it harder for citizens to participate in our democracy.