Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

No spitting on ballots, and other primary day virus guidance

Checked mailed-in ballots in Washington

Election worker Janice Reese reviews mailed-in ballots in Washington, where Democratic Secretary of State Kim Wyman has ordered gloves for everyone opening voting envelopes.

John Moore/Getty Images

More long lines, the smell of disinfectant and the sight of poll workers in rubber gloves are at the intersection of another big day of Democratic presidential voting and the rapidly spreading coronavirus.

As if there wasn't already enough public skepticism about the reliability of American elections, officials in six states were working Tuesday to assure voters they could participate in democracy's central rite and stay healthy at the same time — so long as they exercise common sense and basic hygiene.

The day began with some reassuring statistics. No confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported in Idaho, Mississippi, North Dakota or Michigan, the biggest prize of the day. There's a single Covid-19 patient in Missouri. And the biggest state in the nation where everyone is permitted to vote by mail is Washington, meaning Democrats in the state that also has the biggest known coronavirus exposure so far — 19 deaths and another 100 or so confirmed cases — have no need to get near a voting booth on primary day.


Perhaps the biggest potential election-related health threat in Washington is people using saliva to seal their ballots, which have to be postmarked by Tuesday night. Democratic Secretary of State Kim Wyman has ordered gloves for everyone opening voting envelopes and is asking voters to use a damp cloth on their mail-in ballots.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Her mantra: "Whether healthy or sick, please don't lick."

Michigan also allowed people to cast presidential primary ballots early, either by mail or at their town hall, starting six weeks ago — and evidence is that a solid share of Democrats took advantage of this new option, tamping down a rush to the polls Tuesday. With 125 delegates at stake in the first primary among the Midwestern battleground states, Sen. Bernie Sanders is banking heavily on a victory as a firewall against the new momentum behind former Vice President Joe Biden.

In a memo to election clerks last week, Michigan officials urged poll workers to distribute hand sanitizers and wipes, plus keep latex gloves at the polling places and wipe down voting equipment, registration tables, pens and doorknobs with disinfectant.

Similar guidance was being given in the other four states, where all the voting is taking place in person — meaning people will have to stand in close proximity and then use equipment that's been touched by hundreds of others.

Crowded and cramped polling places are less a health risk for voters than for poll workers, who are inside the whole day. The federal government estimates that in 2018 three-fifths of the nation's poll workers were older than 61, and elderly people are the most susceptible to a virus. This suggests that recruiting people to serve as precinct-level election officials, which has already become more difficult in recent years, could become a bigger problem if Covid-19 remains a public health crisis into the fall.

"We cannot afford to wait until November to discover we don't have an adequate number of poll workers to manage this most consequential election," said the National Vote at Home Institute, which advocates for having the entire country vote by mail.

In the short term, "We're encouraging voters to make sure they wash their hands as often as possible and continue to practice good hygiene," GOP Secretary of State Michael Watson of Mississippi said. "With no confirmed cases in our state, we obviously still want to remain cautious. We encourage all Mississippians to go vote."

"Go to the polls," urged GOP Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft of Missouri, promising his state knew how to conduct healthy primaries because such balloting always happens in the state during flu season.

"I would, as politely as possible, tell people to follow through on their responsibility to participate and help to continue to make this state and this country the best it can be. And that happens when the people of this state in this country get out and make their voice heard," he said on ABC.

Read More

The Evolving Social Contract: From Common Good to Contemporary Practice

An illustration of hands putting together a puzzle.

Getty Images, cienpies

The Evolving Social Contract: From Common Good to Contemporary Practice

The concept of the common good in American society has undergone a remarkable transformation since the nation's founding. What began as a clear, if contested, vision of collective welfare has splintered into something far more complex and individualistic. This shift reflects changing times and a fundamental reimagining of what we owe each other as citizens and human beings.

The nation’s progenitors wrestled with this very question. They drew heavily from Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who saw the social contract as a sacred covenant between citizens and their government. But they also pulled from deeper wells—the Puritan concept of the covenant community, the classical Republican tradition of civic virtue, and the Christian ideal of serving one's neighbor. These threads wove into something uniquely American: a vision of the common good that balances individual liberty with collective responsibility.

Keep ReadingShow less
We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

Students in a classroom.

Getty Images, Maskot

We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

“If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men.” - W.E.B. Du Bois

The current state of public education has many confused, anxious, and even fearful. Depending on the day, I feel any combination of the above, among other less-than-ideal adjectives. Simply, the future is uncertain. Schools are simultaneously cutting budgets and trying to remain relevant, all during an increasingly tense political climate.

Keep ReadingShow less
Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

An oversized gavel surrounded by people.

Getty Images, J Studios

Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

In a recent post we quoted a journalist describing the Republican Party as anti-immigration. Many of our readers wrote back angrily to say that the Republican party is only opposed to immigrants who are present illegally.

But that's not true. And we're not shy of telling it like it is.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Importance of Respecting Court Orders
brown wooden chess piece on brown book

The Importance of Respecting Court Orders

The most important question in American politics today is whether Donald Trump will respect court orders. Judges have repeatedly ruled against his administration.

But will he listen?

Keep ReadingShow less