There’s an election integrity crisis. But not the one Republicans claim.

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There is an election integrity crisis in the United States, brought to you by the people who claim they are securing the vote.

The Post’s Emma Brown and Amy Gardner reported over the weekend that a cybersecurity executive who has helped those promoting the “big lie” about fraud in the 2020 election claimed that he “forensically examined” voting systems in Coffee County, Ga., another sign that the county’s voting equipment might have been breached.

That revelation came after former Coffee County election supervisor Misty Hampton admitted that she opened her offices to another man, election-denier activist Scott Hall, following the 2020 presidential election. Ms. Hampton has said she thought Mr. Hall could find evidence that the election “was not done true and correct.”

A government watchdog group says it recorded Mr. Hall bragging that he and others “went in there and imaged every hard drive of every piece of equipment.” Coalition for Good Governance, a nonpartisan watchdog group which is suing the state of Georgia, submitted the recording into court records. The person identified as Mr. Hall continued: “We basically had the entire elections committee there. And they said: ‘We give you permission. Go for it.’”

Ms. Hampton also made a video in which she claimed that Dominion Voting Systems machines were vulnerable to manipulation — and in which the Coffee County election server password was visible.

The 2020 vote was perhaps the most secure in U.S. history. Former president Donald Trump’s claims to the contrary have convinced many Republicans, including an alarming number of those responsible for administering elections, that the system is, in fact, corrupt. That led directly to the situation in Coffee County, and allegations of breaches elsewhere. Tina Peters, the county clerk in Mesa County, Colo., has been indicted for allegedly facilitating the illicit entry of an outsider into the election offices under her care. Stories such as these are likely to become more common, as candidates committed to Mr. Trump’s lies run for election administration posts across the country.

Indeed, the nation will be lucky if conspiracy theorists manage to conduct only a handful of small-scale intrusions. Come 2024, Trump acolytes in election jobs, from the lowliest of local election workers to statewide election chiefs, might seek to dump what they deem to be “fake” votes and find “real” ones. There could be intense pressure to undermine the process at every point, from the casting of individual ballots right up to Congress’s certification of electoral votes. GOP lawmakers’ unsuccessful push to overturn the 2020 vote in Congress could look like just a dry run.

The Coffee County revelations serve as another reminder that Congress must reform election procedures vulnerable to such abuse, starting with the Electoral Count Act, which governs how electoral votes are tallied. A partisan procedural coup should be impossible. Federal lawmakers have a narrow window in which to act before the 2022 midterm elections reshape Congress.

Voters have a responsibility, too: They must reject this year’s wave of GOP candidates for secretary of state, governor and other jobs who claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Otherwise, the country might end up seeing what a real stolen election looks like.