Not too long ago, Democrats were the ones claiming that elections were stolen.

While serving as Ohio secretary of state, I saw wild accusations and ridiculous lawsuits from Democrats and left-wing advocacy groups in an attempt to delegitimize election results.

The conspiracy theories of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; the late Gore Vidal; and liberal blogs grew into something widely promoted by prominent elected Democrats.

Liberal Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who is now running for his 27th term in Congress, held outrageous hearings and even produced a taxpayer-funded, 142-page report detailing these tinfoil-hat accusations.  By fairly enforcing state election laws during a year with record-breaking turnout, local election officials and I were accused by Conyers of suppressing votes through "intentional misconduct and illegal behavior."

Conyers's efforts were a publicity stunt that spun out of control.  By spreading distrust in the democratic system, liberals started believing that President George W. Bush and senior adviser Karl Rove could control election results from their secret bunker in Texas.

For the most part, the mainstream media blew up these stupid lies.

My, how things have changed!

Now, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is claiming that the 2016 election is "rigged."  Suddenly, the political establishment, mainstream media, and liberal pundits have changed their tune.

Repeatedly, Trump's accusations have been called "dangerous demagoguery," "playing with fire," and even "unpatriotic."

Dozens of Republican election officials across the country have rejected Trump's accusations.  My predecessor, Ohio secretary of state Jon Husted, indignantly announced, "I am in charge of elections in Ohio, and they're not going to be rigged.  I'll make sure of that."

But 2004 is not 2016.  And I am convinced the integrity of the 2016 election is actually under assault.

Published by WikiLeaks, thousands of leaked emails from Hillary Clinton's campaign show that her team is perfectly capable of rigging the election.

We now have a firm grasp of Hilary's unethical ties to Wall Street, the mainstream media, foreign despots, and even the FBI agents involved in her criminal investigation.  Now she is using that vast, corrupt network to rig an election against a candidate who received more primary votes than any Republican in history.

First, emails showed then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz actively engaged in a strategy to rig the election for Hillary.  DNC money was coordinated with Hillary's campaign, and Hillary's staff had the final say in all DNC hires.  We watched as Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) won the popular vote in state after state, only to be overruled by DNC superdelegates who just happened to be Clinton insiders.

Schultz, along with CEO Amy Dacey, chief finance officer Brad Marshall, and communications director Luis Miranda, were all forced to resign after WikiLeaks exposed their coordination with Hillary's campaign.

Then WikiLeaks exposed Schutlz's DNC replacement, Donna Brazile, a longtime Clinton hack, who was just fired by CNN for leaking television debate questions to Hillary Clinton in advance.

Team Hillary shamelessly rigged debates.  And while the media's bias in favor of the Clintons is extensive, this was actual cheating.  The fix was in, and Sanders never stood a chance.

For the campaign against Trump, we have read messages showing Hillary's campaign chair actively encouraging illegal aliens to vote in states that provide them driver's licenses.  In addition, an extensive network of illegal aliens has been hired to register in targeted areas, expanding the likelihood of more voter fraud.

In Virginia, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and many other states, election fraud is happening on a scale never imagined before.  Thanks to motor voter laws and early voting, many examples of deceased voters casting ballots have been exposed.  In the meantime, votes for people who have lived in multiple states are counted.  One frequent practice noticed by election officials has been "vote harvesting," where signatures are obtained illegally to cast ballots without the voters' consent.

According to a Pew Charitable Trust report from 2012, one in eight voter registrations is significantly inaccurate "or no longer valid."  There are more than 146 million Americans registered to vote, which means at least 18 million are invalid.  With almost 3 million people registered in multiple states and 2 million deceased individuals still on the rolls, the chances for fraud are more widespread than ever.

Hillary is good at rigging things, and her friends at the Department of Justice have control of her FBI Investigation.  If Hillary were anyone else in the government, she could not get a security clearance and would face serious prison time.  But WikiLeaks shows that the State Department and the White House worked closely with Hillary's campaign to explain her illegally used home email server.  Not only did Hillary help raise money for an FBI agent's wife who was running for office, her campaign chairman was a close friend with another top agent.

FBI director James Comey changed direction on the investigation only due to internal pressure caused by Anthony Weiner's laptop.  Now, the FBI has waited so long that America will not know the details of the newly discovered messages before Election Day.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is a criminal enterprise, and her ability to get away with corruption is unprecedented.  Her defeat at the polls must be greater than her margin of corruption.

Ken Blackwell is a former secretary of state of Ohio.  He is a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union and the Family Research Council.