Checks and Balance: The covid campaign

How do you hold a vote in the middle of a pandemic? Statewide elections in Wisconsin this week showed how hard it is to manage the logistics of democracy during a lockdown. A partisan fight over changes to the way votes are cast went all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile the most expensive campaigns in history have had to rip up their plans and start again online.

In this episode we talk to election officials in Wisconsin, hear how electoral campaigns unfolded during the 1918 flu, and figure out what the current pandemic means for this year’s presidential race.

John Prideaux, The Economist’s US editor, hosts with Charlotte Howard, New York bureau chief, and Washington correspondent Jon Fasman.

Read The Economist’s full coverage of the coronavirus.

For access to The Economist’s print, digital and audio editions subscribe: www.economist.com/pod2020.

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