"The coronavirus crisis means that states like Pennsylvania may be counting mail-in ballots for weeks, while President Trump tweets false allegations about fraud...."

"I spoke last week to executives, TV hosts and election analysts across leading American newsrooms, and I was struck by the blithe confidence among some top managers and hosts, who generally said they’ve handled complicated elections before and can do so again. And I was alarmed by the near panic among some of the people paying the closest attention — the analysts and producers trying, and often failing, to get answers from state election officials about how and when they will count the ballots and report results. 'The nerds are freaking out,' said Brandon Finnigan, the founder of Decision Desk HQ, which delivers election results to media outlets. 'I don’t think it’s penetrated enough in the average viewer’s mind that there’s not going to be an election night. The usual razzmatazz of a panel sitting around discussing election results — that’s dead,' he said.... [An] important change that many political types suggest: Get rid of the misleading 'percent of precincts reporting' measure. In states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, it would be easy to have 100 percent of precincts reporting their Election Day results — but have mail-in votes piled up in a warehouse, uncounted...."

From "How the Media Could Get the Election Story Wrong/We may not know the results for days, and maybe weeks. So it’s time to rethink 'election night'" by Ben Smith (NYT).