Election officials are bracing for a potentially chaotic election, trying to navigate the risks of voting during a pandemic, a tidal wave of mail ballots and the president fanning skepticism about the validity of the tabulation. They have scrambled to enlist sports teams to help recruit poll workers, secured grants to stock up on face masks and hand sanitizer, and ordered machines to speed up the counting of mail ballots. But several are still hamstrung by outdated election laws on counting mail ballots or paralyzed by partisan litigation likely to extend to Election Day itself.