There is, nationally, a growing if grudging realization of that reality.

Yet millions of Americans will refuse to accept the legitimacy of that election and its outcome and will continue to believe, with President Donald Trump, that it was "rigged."

"Was the 2020 election stolen by the establishment to get rid of a president, Donald Trump, whom it loathed?" will be debated decades hence — as are questions such as, "Did FDR have advance knowledge the Japanese were going to attack?" and, "Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in Dallas?"

That perception that something was afoot first arose in the minds of millions in the hours after the election on Nov. 3, when 83% of Republicans polled by Gallup said they did not believe reports of Trump's defeat.

Things perceived as real are real in their consequences.

And there was justification for that perception. Who was not stunned to learn that as Trump seemed to be pulling ahead in the voting count on Nov. 3, suddenly, around midnight, the vote counting appeared to stop in the crucial swing states, and we were told it would begin again early the next morning? Why the halt?