News Room

The long-anticipated 2020 General Election, which was already going to be a show of the ages, is coupled with a global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. When voter turnout is as high as it is expected to be this year, the lines, or queues in the data science world, can become long — sometimes very long. The spring Presidential primary election in my home state of Wisconsin occurred during the statewide “stay-at-home” order associated with the pandemic, and many polling locations experienced long queues. Election officials are bracing for these queues to be even longer on November 3 when voter turnout will be much higher than it was for the primaries.

Hospitalisations of Covid-19 patients are surging across the US, leading to a shortage of medical staff and threatening to force state governors to make difficult decisions about rationing access to intensive care. New field hospitals were being opened from the Wisconsin state fair grounds to the El Paso Convention Center in Texas, as US Covid-19 cases surged to an all-time high a week before the presidential election.

One of the biggest challenges for shoppers this holiday season could be getting gifts to their destinations on time. In fact, there's already a lot of nervousness in the retail industry about whether their deliveries can keep up with demand. As we found out, they aren't the only ones who are nervous. Donna Bachmann counts herself as among the nervous ones. She says Federal Express lost five quilts she made last holiday season as gifts.

Associate Professor Natalie M. Scala standing at the ballot drop box on the Towson University campus about two weeks before the 2020 General Election. Between physical distancing measures leading to long lines to vote in person, mail-in or absentee ballots taking longer to be counted and the threat of foreign interference, there are plenty of factors making tensions rise ahead of November's general election.

Security in Mail Voting featuring Natalie Scala.