The experiences of electoral authorities around the world show that the risks to pandemic-era voting are predictable and can be prevented — or at least managed — by taking practical steps: delivering funding for additional polling workers and polling places; ensuring more and easier ways to vote; conducting public information campaigns about what’s changing; taking safety measures from masks to outdoor lines; and allowing officials to begin processing mail ballots before election night.
The challenge in the United States is getting all 50 states and numerous territories on the same page when it comes to making the necessary adjustments. While the vast majority of countries have single national election authorities, the U.S. election system is uniquely decentralized, governed by a patchwork of 3,100 counties.
And time is running out for those local election officials to take the kinds of steps necessary to ensure a smooth election day in November — or election weeks, given that many states now have extended early voting periods, starting in September. Richard L. Hasen, the lead author of an April report into fair elections in a crisis, said in an email that after watching the U.S. primary season unfold, he now believes “the report understated the danger” to November’s election….
A University of California report recommends that mail ballots be opened and stacked — “everything short of the final tabulation” — before voting closes, to ensure a quicker count on election night. Most U.S. states allow at least basic processing of mail ballots, such as signature verification, to occur before election day. Some, such as Maryland, ban counting even on election night, delaying it until the morning after. If a state won’t allow early processing of mail ballots, officials can reduce distrust by publishing daily information about absentee and provisional ballot counting and the number of ballots remaining to be counted.
In the absence of a single federal election authority, the American news media plays a bigger role in tallying and announcing election results than in most countries. That role will be even more prominent if the final election result is not known for days or weeks after Nov. 3. Such delays are common in parliamentary systems, where the leading party often fails to win a majority of seats and must form a coalition to govern, but the uncertainty tends to be around which parties will join a governing coalition, rather than who won parliament seats.