Every four years, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the political press hosts its biggest planned news event: election night. Its the blockbuster season finale political reporters and television hosts, not to mention the candidates, have been building up to for at least two years.

Election night is supposed to be a night of hyper cable news hosts, color-coded Magic Walls, flickering needles and overwrought homilies to U.S. democracy that ends, maybe in the wee hours, with the American People making a Decision. One person will win and be named the next president of the United States. There will be speeches one, a concession, the other, claiming victory. Ratings will be high.

But the 2020 election will be different. Nearly every state in the country anticipates a radical increase in voters casting their ballots by mail to stay safe amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. This will fundamentally alter the speed at which votes are tabulated. If this years presidential election is as close as five of the last six elections 2008 being the exception it is unlikely a victor will be declared on Nov. 3.

As a trickle of results come in over the ensuing days or weeks, President Donald Trump and Republican leaders will almost certainly attack the credibility of the elections with false and unfounded allegations of voter fraud. Trump did this in 2016 even after he won the election. And Republican leaders like former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) both did so after the 2018 midterm elections.

Democratic elections require voters to believe in the legitimacy of the process. False accusations of fraud from one party are designed to undermine the legitimacy of the election of their opponents. But these accusations also strike at the heart of our democratic elections and republican government.

We need to take action to deprive these accusations of oxygen. Its time to turn down the hype and end election night in America as we know it.

Absentee Ballot Flood