COVID changed education and healthcare, and it changed how we work, socialize, and practice religion. COVID also changed how we vote. Many of our COVID-era election practices would not pass muster with even the most permissive of election observers. Transparency, security, and perceived fairness of the system across states and key counties could suffer unless we plan changes now.

Ballot drop boxes without tamper-evident seals, secured with $8 hardware-store padlocks in Washington, D.C.? Week-long delays in regional results reporting? Handfuls of automatically mailed ballots subject to no or only cursory signature verification? Those practices could have sparked revolution in many of the countries where I have worked with national election commissions.