You wouldn’t know it from social media, but most Americans believe that Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election and Joe Biden won in 2020. They are correct: There has not been a stolen presidential election in America in living memory. Our electoral system is not perfect, but it works. Instead of decrying the whole edifice as fraudulent, people in positions of authority should work to fix those flaws that remain and build up trust in this most important of democratic institutions.

Disappointed partisans try their best to pretend that the system is deeply flawed. In February 2021, shortly after Joe Biden’s inauguration, one-third of respondents told AP-NORC pollsters that they did not believe Biden was “legitimately elected” to the White House. Perhaps that is not all that surprising: Shortly after Trump’s election in 2016, more than one-sixth said that his election was illegitimate, too, according to Gallup.