“One-in-Five Mail-In Voters Admit They Cheated in 2020 Election.” That’s the five-alarm headline for a new survey by Rasmussen Reports and The Heartland Institute.

According to another Rasmussen/Heartland poll, nearly one in five Democrats also want Donald Trump to be imprisoned for life, permanently exiled, or executed if convicted for his claims of election fraud. Executed? Sheesh.

Do you know what the difference is here? Trump failed in his legal and sometimes cockamamie attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The voters who committed fraud succeeded.

Some 21% of Rasmussen respondents “say they filled out a ballot, in part or in full, on behalf of a friend or family member, such as a spouse or child,” while “19% of those who cast mail-in votes say a friend or family member filled out their ballot, in part or in full, on their behalf.” Rasmussen adds, “Furthermore, 17% of mail-in voters say that in the 2020 election, they cast a ballot in a state where they were no longer a permanent resident.”

These are just the people who admit to illegal activities, too — the real numbers could be far higher. That said, Rasmussen’s automated (non-human-voice) polling methodology tends to elicit truthful responses because every respondent hears the exact same question asked in the exact same way.

Either way, this is no small matter. The Heartland Institute’s Justin Haskins called the survey results “nothing short of stunning.” No kidding. The Narrative™ about the 2020 election was as utterly false as the 2016 lie about Trump’s collusion with Russia.

“For the past three years,” Haskins notes, “Americans have repeatedly been told that the 2020 election was the most secure in history. But if this poll’s findings are reflective of reality, the exact opposite is true. This conclusion isn’t based on conspiracy theories or suspect evidence, but rather from the responses made directly by the voters themselves.”

With his trademark caps lock key turned on, Trump took to Truth Social to call it “THE BIGGEST STORY OF THE YEAR,” and he might not be wrong. In fact, had he and his administration done more about it when then-Attorney General William Barr was warning that the mass mail-in ballots of 2020 were “playing with fire,” Trump might still be president.

Might. Rasmussen does add a significant caveat: “Nearly equal percentages of Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters admitted to fraudulent activities.” However, a far higher number of Democrats cast ballots by mail, and younger voters and minorities — who skew heavily Democrat — were “significantly more likely to admit to engaging in fraudulent election activity” than were older or white voters.

In 2020, Democrats across the country realized they could win more elections by changing the rules by using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse and then screaming about “voter suppression” if anyone reined it back in. Rules changes included vastly expanding mail-in ballots with woefully inadequate verification, which a bipartisan 2005 report from the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, warned “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” Other nations don’t seem to be so deluded as to let their elections be determined by mail.

And we do mean determined.

As our Mark Alexander wrote just three months ago:

Of the votes cast in 2020, 43% (66 million ballots) were cast by mail — and a majority of those were in states where authentication of the person receiving and casting the ballot is not required. Of all those who voted in person, 66% voted for Trump versus 42% for Biden — which is to say that 58% of Biden ballots, almost 47 million votes, were cast by mail.

If even a few percent of those voters committed fraud — say, by illegally voting absentee in a particular swing state — it could have changed the election result. Remember, Biden won by 43,000 votes in three swing states, which is precisely why the Left has renewed attacks on the Electoral College and demanded constant expansion of mail-in ballots.

Memo to the Left: The election system created by the Founders in the Constitution is not the problem. Rigging elections with mail-in ballots is.

Americans are increasingly guilty of civic ignorance and are becoming more dishonest while gradually abandoning the objective truth and moral guidance of Christianity — and states mail out ballots for any reason, including nine states that do it in bulk without voters even asking for ballots.

What could go wrong?

If Republicans don’t begin shouting about election integrity from the rooftops, they deserve the defeat they are by default accepting.