Voting in a time of crisis: How coronavirus reshaped 2020 election

This was always going to be a busy week for Leslie Swan. 

As the supervisor of elections for Indian River, a county on Florida’s mid-Atlantic coast, she had prepared all year for Tuesday’s primary: registering voters, training poll workers, and organizing precinct locations. But the past few days presented an unexpected to-do list – scouring the internet for hand sanitizer and instructing workers on how to wipe down equipment between voters.

“This was the last thing I was expecting,” says Ms. Swan, in the lobby of her office building which doubles as one of her 20 polling locations. 

As measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 intensify across the country – from distance learning for millions of students, to canceled sports seasons and shuttered stores and restaurants

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