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Experts offer guidebook on elections during Covid-19

Cleaning supplies for elections

Among the task force's recommendations: Make sure cleaning supplies are available at polling locations.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The relatively new National Task Force on Election Crises has issued its concise but thorough guidance to states on how to plan for elections during the coronavirus outbreak.

The laundry list of recommendations includes steps to promote more mail-in voting, while also preparing for in-person voting by making sure cleaning supplies are available, and recruiting additional poll workers to replace those that may cancel because of health concerns.


The cross-partisan task force of more than 40 experts on election law, administration, security, and voting rights was created last year in anticipation of challenges, which at the time did not include a major national health crisis.

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Entrance Sign at the University of Florida

Universities are embracing “institutional neutrality,” but at places like the University of Florida it’s becoming a tool to silence faculty and erode academic freedom.

Getty Images, Bryan Pollard

When Insisting on “Neutrality” Becomes a Gag Order

Universities across the country are adopting policies under the banner of “institutional neutrality,” which, at face value, sounds entirely reasonable. A university’s official voice should remain measured, cautious, and focused on its core mission regardless of which elected officials are in office. But two very different interpretations of institutional neutrality are emerging.

At places like the University of Wisconsin – Madison and Harvard, neutrality is applied narrowly and traditionally: the institution itself refrains from partisan political statements, while faculty leaders and scholars remain free to speak in their professional and civic capacities. Elsewhere, the same term is being applied far more aggressively — not to restrain institutions, but to silence individuals.

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