Covid-19 coronavirus: Senators call for US election to use only postal votes

United States President Donald Trump listens during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Photo / AP

American senators have floated the possibility of November's presidential election being carried out purely by postal votes as the impacts of coronavirus on the campaign calendar begin to enter the spotlight.

Some have suggested that if the outbreak is still continuing later this year there could be no in-person voting at polling stations in what would be a remarkable break with historical precedent.

Other approaches have also been raised, such as electronic voting or increased use of absentee ballots so that the elderly who are most vulnerable to the virus could vote from home.

There has even been loose talk from Democrats that United States President Donald Trump could push back the election date - despite the fact that he has made no public indication that he could do so.

State voting in the Democratic nomination race remains uncertain, with states pushing back their polls by months.

Even the political conventions now have new degrees of uncertainty attached to them. The Democrats are due to hold their Milwaukee gathering in July while the Republican convention is meant to happen in Charlotte, North Carolina, in August.

The presidential election on November 3 is still eight months away.

Trump cites a 2.2 million death estimate from coronavirus, then says: "So if we can hold that down, as we're saying, to 100,000, it's a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job."

— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) March 29, 2020

People point out that this was an extreme case if US did nothing at all. But scenario in which US only isolated old and vulnerable and lifted restrictions elsewhere, which Trump floated last week, was projected at over 1 million dead. It’s very big if Birx/Fauci break through. https://t.co/EIO7rlMfAt

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) March 29, 2020

Not even the country's most senior health officials can predict with certainty the trajectory of the US outbreak, but that has not stopped politicians speculating.

Steny Hoyer, the second most senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, said: "If it comes to it, and we still have the virus... and best practice is being away from one another, disaggregated, then I think we ought to go to an election by mail."

He added: "I think it's very, very important for the American people to be able to select as a commander-in-chief, particularly at the time when we have great challenges in our country, the person of their choice. So I would be opposed to delaying the November election."

New Interview: I spoke with law professor Richard Epstein, whose controversial article on coronavirus circulated in the Trump administration, about why he believes many coronavirus models are wrong, and the dangers of sloppy science during a pandemic. https://t.co/kpurftthzw

— Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) March 29, 2020

The suggestion is not without controversy. The impact on voter turnout and whether it would favour some demographics over others is untested.

Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, has suggested more absentee or remote voting could be used to make sure voting happens safely.

He has also talked about rethinking "how we can allocate space and distribute people so they're not standing next to each other in polling places".