If you don’t want certain losing candidates to run around endlessly claiming your state’s election was stolen from them, one of the best things you can do is to make sure your state’s vote totals get reported in substantially complete form by the time residents go to sleep election night. One of several American states to achieve this feat, and by far the largest, is Florida. …

Such a reform goal requires purposeful effort on multiple fronts, including deadlines for mail ballot receipt, pre‐​processing, practices on curing and provisional ballots, capacity‐​building in election administration, and outreach aimed at urging mail voters not to wait until the very last minute.

[Or just address it more simply. Each state should use paper ballots with optical-scan capability rather than punch ballots (which Florida dumped after 2000) or electronic voting, as too many states adopted at that time, including Texas. Minnesota, Florida, and other states use optical-scan ballots that can easily and quickly be tabulated, but also can be tested for spoilage before the voter leaves the precinct. This allows for fast reporting and a non-degrading paper record for recounts when necessary. Early voting and mail-in ballots should use the same technology and the deadline for submission should be before Election Day. Those provisions would probably solve at least 95% of the issues that delay election counts, and maybe 100%. — Ed]