By Molly Ball
The 2020 election would have been a largely partisan issue with Trump playing up his economic successes and Biden trying to rally Democratic supporters. But that was before the pandemic. Now, health is at the forefront of the national stage, and it has changed everything about the 2020 campaign.
Trump and his Republican party have struggled to adapt to the new norms, insisting on holding rallies and fundraising events in person while the Democrats have quickly switched to virtual events. This has cost them both in polls and in presentation. In one of his Oklahoma rallies, Trump walked on stage to a mostly empty arena. When social distancing has caused sudden changes, Republicans have had multiple technical difficulties.
Online campaign, however, is easier in some respects. Candidates don't have to call on special guests to appear from across the country, just on Zoom, to attract viewers. Usually, campaigners go door-to-door to get people to vote. However, this has raised many health concerns. What's ironic is that voters are more motivated to vote than ever, because they feel that their vote matters in the current nationwide issues of health and race.
Many states are trying to prepare for mail voting in systems that are already fragile. Primaries have already shown that the infrastructure is not yet in place, and some places still do not have results. This has made it easier for President Trump to attack the system and claim that mail voting is fraudulent, laying the stage for him to potentially deny the results of vote-by-mail election.
This has also caused people to rethink what they want in their leaders. President Trump's approval ratings have been dismal, and many people have suggested that he is self-serving in polls. Still, his campaign says that the Democrats won't turn out to vote, and that they outweigh them two-to-one.
"The U.S. has held elections under difficult circumstances before: wars, depressions, natural disasters. Each time, in the face of difficulty, we voted on schedule; each time, democracy gave us the opportunity to choose how we would steer out of the crisis."
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