The 2020 race could become the coronavirus election. Is America ready?

It's hard to run an election during a pandemic, let alone stay healthy.

In 1918, as Spanish influenza wreaked havoc in one of the greatest health disasters in U.S. history, politicians were sidelined as bans on public gatherings made it impossible to hold campaign rallies.

There was no vaccine for that virus, which killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, and the best officials could do was keep people away from each other to limit the microbe's spread. Voters in that year's midterm election headed to the polling booths in masks for fear that a simple act of civic participation could be deadly.

And for good reason: In Wayne, Neb., officials lifted a public-gathering ban five days before the election, allowing a flurry of last-minute campaigning - which also coincided with a rise in deadly infections.

Now, for