8 votes

This isn't the first time a crisis has come during election year. So how have we dealt with things like this before?

Posted by Kuromantis
Tags: coronaviruses.covid19, politics, usa, elections, 2020 us presidential election, 1918 flu pandemic, 1910s, diseases.respiratory, author.geoffrey skelley, source.fivethirtyeight
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/this-isnt-the-first-time-america-has-weathered-a-crisis-in-an-election-year/

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Title
This Isn't The First Time America Has Weathered A Crisis In An Election Year
Authors
Geoffrey Skelley
Published
Mar 23 2020
Word count
1729 words

2 comments

  1. patience_limited
    Link
    Check your state's absentee voting regulations now, folks. In my former home state of Florida, you had to sign an affidavit that you would be unable to attend during scheduled election hours. If...

    Check your state's absentee voting regulations now, folks.

    In my former home state of Florida, you had to sign an affidavit that you would be unable to attend during scheduled election hours. If you requested an absentee ballot, you'd be unable to vote in person if circumstances changed.

    Michigan will provide an absentee ballot on request without any reason required, and you can still cast a provisional ballot if you vote in person.

    Aside from 50 states and the territories aligning to implement vote-by-mail before November, absentee voting is the tool we've got. [I have a feeling it's still not going to be a good idea to stand in lines for voting booths by then.] I'm not going to discuss the numerous opportunities this provides for insecure elections - at least there's a paper trail.

    5 votes
  2. Kuromantis
    Link
    Mildly offtopic but this is a really fun factoid from the article:

    Mildly offtopic but this is a really fun factoid from the article:

    New York’s primary election was actually scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001, but the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that morning prompted New York Gov. George Pataki to postpone the election, and the state instead held its primaries two weeks later. Obviously, this was an especially extreme case, but the suddenness of the delay is a reminder that sometimes elections can’t go on.

    1 vote