Preparing for Elections in the Midst of a Pandemic

Posted: March 24th, 2020

By Walter Pincus

Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalist Walter Pincus is a contributing senior national security columnist for The Cipher Brief. He spent forty years at The Washington Post, writing on topics that ranged from nuclear weapons to politics. He is the author of Blown to Hell: America's Deadly Betrayal of the Marshall Islanders. Pincus won an Emmy in 1981 and was the recipient of the Arthur Ross Award from the American Academy for Diplomacy in 2010. He was also a team member for a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 and the George Polk Award in 1978.

OPINION – What’s happening today with COVID-19, from global healthcare systems under extreme stress to the far-reaching economic impact, will be felt for years to come. But there are other unintended consequences of COVID-19, including the very serious impact it could have on the 2020 presidential election.

There currently is no national plan for what to do about the November 3 election if the coronavirus, months from now, still has some or many states, cities or towns on lockdown with voters unable to safely go to the polls.

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