(This op-ed was first published in The New York Times on September 20, 2020.)

The 2020 election is underway. Not just the campaign — the actual voting has already begun. States are recruiting and training poll workers, identifying the final list of polling places and early voting locations and mailing out ballots. The pandemic presents a huge challenge, but we can still ensure a safe and accessible vote this November. Here are six ways to make that happen.

1. Every voter must make a plan to vote. Now.
2. Work the polls.
3. Keep watch over the post office, but rebuild confidence in the mail.
4. Voters need other ways to return their mail ballots.
5. If a group is trying to help, coordinate with the election officials who run the show.
6. A massive public education effort should ensure voters know how to cast their ballots.

(Continue reading the op-ed on The New York Times’ page here.)

Nathaniel Persily is a law professor at Stanford and Charles Stewart III is a political science professor at M.I.T. Together, they run the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.