The impact of the coronavirus on the daily lives of millions of Americans has demonstrated that patience is a virtue. But it is clearly a virtue that not everyone in the United States possesses, as politicians and armed groups have demanded that America open back up despite the health risks of an ongoing pandemic.
Nonetheless, patience is something that Americans are going to need in November 2020 as election results slowly filter in. As others have said, move over, election day—welcome, “election week.”
What I mean by “election week” is that many more American voters than usual are likely to vote by mail in the 2020 presidential elections because of the pandemic. A bipartisan group of elections experts, including me, wrote about this in a recent white paper entitled Fair Elections During a Crisis, providing suggestions to elections officials and the media on how to conduct a fair 2020 election. The crises that were top of mind when we wrote the piece were Covid-19 and foreign cybersecurity threats. But most of the recommendations would also apply to the civil unrest of public protests against police violence as well.