“Wisconsin shows that you can’t adopt vote-by-mail overnight,” says Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford law professor and the head of the Healthy Elections Project, a new effort by Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to address the threat of Covid-19. “It’s not as easy as people think. The boring stuff matters — the scut work of supply chain and logistics and management is crucial.”

“It’s this simple: A disputed election in this environment poses an existential threat to American democracy,” Persily says. “It is that serious.”

“The problem of uniform standards can be easily overcome,” says Nathaniel Persily, the Stanford election expert. “But if states don’t address it ahead of time, you can imagine absentee signatures being the hanging chads of 2020.”

“You’ve heard the election administrator’s prayer, right?” Persily asked me. “Whatever happens, dear Lord, please let it not be close.”