Be a voting ally

This article is about the US election this year.

1. With the COVID pandemic, there will be more mail-in voting than ever before, so counting votes for the presidential election will take weeks. Both candidates are unlikely to concede, so election results are likely to remain unclear until mid-to-late November (election night has typically ended with a decision early the following morning - but that is almost certainly not going to happen on Nov 3rd). The election has already started: 3 million ballots have already been cast as of 10/6 (source).
2. Signature issues are the primary reasons for rejected ballots, which could add up to hundreds of thousands of votes not being counted. Absentee ballot rejection reasons in 2016: "Non-matching signature" (27.5%), "No voter signature" (20%), "No witness signature (3%). Source (page 11). 550k+ ballots were rejected in the 2020 primary (source).
3. There will be doubt about the legitimacy of the election on both sides regardless of the outcome. The best way to stand up for your beliefs is nonviolent protest - which has worked throughout history. This may sound extreme, but the worst case scenario is a coup (ie. bypassing democracy to seize power - in this case it will likely be declaring the winner before votes are done being counted and/or trying to stop the counting of mail-in ballots). Now, most coups fail (they just don't get attention if they fail), and often the method by which they fail is widespread, nonviolent resistance (article). Think about it, it's hard to claim you won an election early with millions of protestors at your gate.
4. The best way to effect change in your circle of control is to talk about practical solutions to political problems with people you love. For me personally, being an ally means sometimes having difficult conversations with those where my bond is deeper than political tensions (ex my family). These are people I genuinely care about regardless of their political choices - and I try to talk offline/over the phone. I believe a lot of online debate is an echo chamber or outrage addiction due to products using attention as currency (see The Social Dilemma on Netflix), and not truly effective for hard conversations. If you are having trouble having these conversations, I highly recommend reading the book Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg.

Last Week Tonight did an excellent segment on the 2020 election this past Sunday that I highly recommend (Youtube).