In a break from our usual coronavirus programming, we recently got a quick look ahead to a looming issue that has major implications for the 2020 elections: voting by mail. President Trump’s cautionary tweet regarding the risk of voting by mail was met immediately by so-called fact checks. Not only is there a wealth of supporting evidence from both sides of the aisle that mail-in voting is a risk to election security, but soon after Trump was “fact-checked,” a report surfaced of one form of mail-in voter fraud in West Virginia. For today’s fact-checkers, life comes at you fast.

If you took a walk around Washington, D.C., last week, you weren’t alone. Strolling through my neighborhood, things felt almost the same as May 2019. People and families were out and about. Folks were out at the farmers market. While nearly everyone wore masks and made an effort to give each other the proper amount of space, I was struck by how normal life has started to seem once again. People are quite obviously ignoring local restrictions to stay inside and refrain from arbitrarily designated “non-essential activities.”

Congress has already passed relief packages totaling $3.6 trillion in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It may soon spend trillions more bailing out the U.S. Postal Service in addition to the airlines and city and state governments that have for so long embraced fiscal irresponsibility. Strange priorities in a crisis.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages and the economic fallout of the widespread lockdowns continues to harm the livelihoods of millions of people, the November elections are rapidly approaching. In just six months, Republicans will attempt to retake the House of Representatives, retain their majority in the Senate, and ensure that President Trump serves an additional four years in the White House.