A smart way to reduce election chaos: Sort ballots early

Analysts across the spectrum warn that this year’s election night is likely to be very different from what Americans are used to — and that it could bring more tumult to a democracy already on edge.

“This election will feature days — possibly weeks — of indecision, which invites chaos, and chaos invites greater division,” Republican strategist Karl Rove warned in the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Rove should know: He was on the front lines of the 2000 Florida recount war, which damaged Americans’ trust in democracy.

“The data is going to show on election night an incredible victory for Donald Trump,” predicted Josh Mendelsohn, chief executive of Hawkfish, a Democratic data firm, to Axios on HBO.

But, because a larger proportion of Democrats than Republicans say they will mail in their ballots, the initial results will be a “mirage”: “It looked like Donald Trump was in the lead, and he fundamentally was not when every ballot gets counted.” Mr. Trump would no doubt claim latebreaking votes were illegitimate, and many Americans would believe him.

There is no easy solution. Many Americans will use mail- in ballots for the first time this year. Some states require those ballots to be returned by Election Day. Others build in some tolerance for unforeseen delays, allowing ballots to be counted if they arrive days after Election Day. Some states also require registrars to notify voters if their mail- in ballots are set to be trashed because of a signature mismatch or some other technical detail, allowing voters to fix the error. These are time- consuming but indispensable policies that ensure people’s votes get counted. So close contests may simply take some time to call.

But there are ways to limit the potential chaos — strategies that many states still have not adopted. One is to allow state officials to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day. Many states do not permit election workers even to begin checking voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes, a laborious step, before Election Day. The legislature in key battleground Pennsylvania — where the number of mail- in ballots jumped by 18 times in its primary this year, relative to four years before — is advancing a bill that would allow officials to begin conducting the initial “pre- canvassing” three days before Nov. 3. This is encouraging not only because the change might reduce the delay in a crucial swing state but also because Republicans control Pennsylvania’s legislature. Maybe, unlike so many other voting issues, this one does not have to be a partisan question.

In fact, states should go one further and allow officials to tabulate absentee votes, not just to sort and verify mail- in ballots, in advance. States may have to create a system in which voters who show up in person on Election Day would be able to withdraw their already-counted absentee vote. That would necessitate some safeguards for keeping voter preferences secret from election workers.

But a smoother election night and post- election period would be more than a mere convenience. It would promote confidence in democracy and limit Mr. Trump’s opportunity to call into question the nation’s key institutions. It is worth some trouble.