What is most important about Nov. 5?

It is not whether Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with tens of millions of ardent supporters, returns to the White House.

It is not whether Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, with tens of millions of passionate followers, becomes the first female president of the United States.

What is most important is that citizens turn out in record numbers voting for the candidate of their choice and respecting the right of other citizens to do the same without fear of harassment or belittlement. The greater the turnout, the greater the legitimacy of the outcome. Nothing is more deadly to democracy than an inert people. What is also important is defending, protecting and supporting volunteer poll workers doing their jobs with the selflessness of the good Samaritan.

What is further important is scrupulous respect for the legal processes in the various states for challenging votes and accepting, without question, final court decrees. What is additionally important is that Trump and Harris both exhort their adherents to honor the nation’s constitutional processes for the peaceful transfer of presidential power period with no commas, question marks, or semicolons.

In other words, we must make the most important victor on Nov. 5 be the peaceful process for electing the president of the United States. If the process wins, all Americans win. We remain the gold standard in self-government for the entire world.

Processes are the heart and soul of American greatness.

The goal of the government in criminal prosecutions is not to win or lose a case but to see that justice is done. Mankind is made of crooked timber. To err is human. All institutions misfire from time to time. The phantasmagoric trial of O.J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman errantly ended in acquittals. But the jury verdicts were honored, and we stuck with the multiple procedural safeguards against convicting the innocent — the centerpiece of civilization.

We should expect a very tight race between Trump and Harris. Legal challenges to vote totals in seven battleground states are likely: Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. There is nothing suspect about seeking to prove electoral fraud in courts of law with admissible evidence and procedures to discover truth and discredit falsehood. Trump or his campaign filed more than 60 suits before judges who covered the complete spectrum of partisan affiliation alleging electoral fraud after the 2020 presidential election. In no case was legally admissible evidence of fraud forthcoming. William Barr, then-President Trump’s attorney general, repeatedly informed Trump that his claims of electoral fraud were “bulls—.”

Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000 set the standard to which 2024 presidential candidates should aspire. He peacefully accepted his loss to President George W. Bush occasioned by the controversial decision of the United States Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore awarding Florida’s electoral votes to Bush.

Of course, judges may err. Courts are not infallible. But their final judgments must be scrupulously honored if the rule of law is to endure. Candidates or their supporters cannot be judges in their own cases and flout court decrees they dislike by force and violence. The United States will be undone if elections come to be determined by bullets rather than ballots.

JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has stated, “We still, of course, believe in the peaceful transfer of power. We’re going to support the 2024 result.” But what about Trump himself? He has consistently refused to affirm Vance’s statement as if he were dodging bullets. He has declared on Truth Social that an allegation of massive electoral fraud “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” even when constitutional processes have discredited the allegation.

Trump needs to get on board. It would be wonderful for Trump, Vance, Harris and Tim Walz to issue a joint statement promising to honor the results of the 2024 election, including court decrees addressing legal challenges, and urging their supporters to do likewise. The same message should be heard in the home, in schools, and in the pulpit.

Let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the men and the women, of all colors, ethnicities and nationalities, make oblations at the altar of the peaceful transfer of presidential power. That is our deliverance from political upheaval or convulsions.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.