Fair elections in 2020 are under attack. Here’s how we can protect the vote.

The public should be prepared for the fact that they likely won’t know the winner of the presidency on election night as absentee counting may take several days to complete.

September 4, 2020 | Dick Gephardt, Trevor Potter and Tim Wirth | USA Today

The freedom to vote is a foundation of our democracy. Preserving it depends on Americans being able to vote, knowing their vote will be counted and having confidence in the results. Free and fair elections are under attack by enemies both visible and invisible, and confronting them is necessary to avoid chaos.

For five weeks in 2000, a partisan war over what votes should be counted in Florida tore our country in two. This year, we risk reliving that nightmare or worse, due to two distinct threats, each of which could prevent people from exercising their right to vote.

The first is the threat posed by COVID-19, which has already killed more than 183,000 Americans. The second is the threat of physical or electronic disruption of the vote by domestic or foreign actors. …