(This op-ed was first published in the Wall Street Journal on November 6, 2020.)

Administrators and ordinary citizens came together to make a fair, safe and secure national vote possible

Considering all the stress and drama of this year’s presidential race, it may be difficult to view the 2020 election as a success. Close elections in polarized societies place a great strain on democracy. After all, no matter who eventually wins, nearly half the country will be disappointed, perhaps even outraged, by the result. But from the perspective of election administration, the past week has been a surprising success.

The smooth administration of the 2020 election is all the more impressive given the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic. Earlier this year, we saw meltdowns in election administration in the presidential primaries.

(Continue reading the op-ed on the Wall Street Journal’s page here.)

Nate Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT. They are co-directors of the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project.