Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How COVID Affected In-Person Voting Tuesday
The Wall Street Journal: How Coronavirus Changed Election 2020 Voting And Polling Stations
Dennis Randall showed up to vote Tuesday at the Blue Valley High School gymnasium here and checked in with a poll worker seated behind a plexiglass shield. Then he waited for someone to disinfect the voting machine before stepping up to mark his choices with a disposable pen emblazoned with an “I Voted” slogan. “The thing that impressed me is you don’t have any physical contact with anything except the pen,” said Mr. Randall, 68 years old, who was one of the first to vote in this Kansas City, Mo., suburb after the school doors opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday. (Carlton, 11/3)
The Wall Street Journal: Voting in a Pandemic Brings Plexiglass, Cotton Swabs and Constant Cleaning
The lines to vote moved more slowly than usual in this Kansas City, Mo., suburb Tuesday, as poll workers wearing masks sprayed and wiped down the machines after each voter finished. For people used to the same election ritual every four years, it wasn’t the only strange sight. Election officials sat behind plexiglass shields, distributed masks to anyone who wanted them and gave each person a disposable pen emblazoned with “I Voted” to mark their choices. (Carlton, 11/3)
Stat: Snapshots Of Covid-19 Precautions At The Polls
As voters went to the polls Tuesday across the country, they encountered an array of precautions meant to keep the presidential election from becoming a Covid-19 superspreader event. Masks and hand sanitizer were ubiquitous, of course, as was grousing about masks. (Ross, McFarling, St. Fleur and Lang, 11/3)
AP: Record Early Vote Leads To Tranquil Election Day At Polls
Despite fears of clashes at polling places, chaos sparked by the coronavirus pandemic and confusion due to disinformation and swiftly-changing voting rules, millions across the U.S. cast ballots in a historically contentious election with few problems. About 103 million votes were cast before Election Day, an early voting push prompted by the pandemic. That took some of the pressure off polling places on Tuesday, which generally saw short or no lines as coronavirus cases were on the rise. Daily confirmed cases were up 43 percent over the past two weeks in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Cassidy and Riccardi, 11/4)
The Washington Post: Some Des Moines Voters Used Hand Sanitizer Before Casting Ballots, Jamming A Polling Scanner
Hand sanitizer meant to ward off the coronavirus caused havoc in a polling place in Iowa on Election Day when some voters disinfected their hands before handling their ballots, causing the wet paper to temporarily jam the ballot scanner. The machine at a voting location in Des Moines was fixed in about an hour, Iowa secretary of state spokesperson Kevin Hall confirmed to The Washington Post. Hall was unable to say how many ballots were involved in the mishap and referred The Post to Polk County election officials. The county auditor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Kornfield, 11/3)
