From 2020 race for White house to school board contests, coronavirus is upending democracy

The novel coronavirus is imperiling lives, the economy and now the basic functions of American democracy.

The spreading scourge and its mounting death toll are forcing the business of representative democracy to be temporarily suspended and to have its rules rewritten on the fly.

The seemingly benign and routine features of the campaign stump — handshakes, door-to-door visits, shoe-leather canvassing, the intimate, kaffeeklatches with donors and civic groups — are now seen as life-threatening encounters, an opportunity for COVID-19 transmission.

As a result, election officials and campaigns are plunging ahead with no playbook or state statute or tradition to guide them. No pollster can predict where any of this is heading.

"It's a lot of fumbling in the dark'' said Chris Russell, a New Jersey Republican political consultant.

The impact of the virus on the political machinery is felt at all stages of the political ecosystem, from the 2020 presidential race to the scheduling of local school board elections.

In New Jersey, school board and special elections are being delayed and voting will be conducted solely by mail. An online portal is being created for candidates to submit their required petitions for the June 2 primary, according to an order outlined by Gov. Phil Murphy last Thursday.

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In New York, the amount of door-to-door time campaign workers spent collecting ballot signatures was dramatically curtailed by executive order.

Donors who are normally counted on to help finance campaigns are curbing their giving as the reeling stock market eats away at their reserves.

And in the 2020 presidential race, candidates are behaving in ways that would have once been considered unimaginable. Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have been "in regular contact at a senior level" to discuss how the pandemic is affecting their campaigns and to discuss a possible joint policy response to the virus.

President Donald Trump, who is preoccupied with the crisis now in his day job, has been forced to move his campaigning to digital media because his preferred mode of whipping up large rallies into a froth of adulation is out of the question for the time being.

Political experts take pains to say that the upcoming primary, school board and special elections sprinkled throughout the spring calendar take a back seat to the more pressing demands of day-to-day survival for the victims, the unemployed and the millions forced to live with limited mobility and social interaction.

"I don't think the voters have much appetite for any typical kind of campaign back and forth,'' Russell said.

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Still, the contagion's effect has been jarring.

Brigid Harrison, a Democrat running in a heated primary for the 2nd Congressional District in South Jersey, said her campaign has canceled six fundraisers, which are crucial to first-time candidates like herself.

Donors often use the receptions for crucial face-time with the candidates. Phone calls have replaced the personal interaction, Harrison said. "Frankly, they are a little less effective,'' she said.

Gathering signatures for digital petitions has also proved to be cumbersome, especially guiding senior citizens through the process. Her campaign also had to pull back 12 volunteers who went door to door collecting ballot signatures.

"We can't have them knocking on people's doors, endangering their health and the health of others," she said.

Some have found creative ways to adapt.

Democrat Amy Kennedy, who is also vying for the 2nd District seat, has included a "COVID-19 Resources" tab to her campaign website, which includes hotline numbers and links to health care resources.

Incumbents, like U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who is running for releection after abandoning his bid for president, have used their office pulpit to tout proposals to combat the economic impact of the virus. Booker called for sending a direct $2,000 payment to most Americans, an idea embraced by Trump.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a candidate for New Jersey governor in 2021, had been on a veritable hand-shaking tour, visiting Republican gatherings across the state in recent months. But now he's turned to social media, broadcasting "Jack Chats" on his Facebook page.

In a recent video, Ciattarelli interviewed a Somerset County physician about the virus. It generated about 226 "likes" and was reposted 145 times by other Facebook users.

"Talk about the symptoms. We know people have heard it. Go over it one more time,'' Ciattarelli says at the start of the video.

Unforeseen circumstances frequently force candidates to make strategic and stylistic adjustments on the stump — it comes with the territory. Late changes to the administrative machinery of elections is a far more difficult challenge. Election bureaucracies are multi-layered, cumbersome and guided by complicated laws and tight schedules.

And a wholesale embrace of a "vote-by-mail" system has some officials concerned that it will depress turnout. Election officials fear that older, traditional voters more accustomed to casting their ballots in person would not participate.

There are 6.1 million voters in New Jersey, though just a fraction of them are expected to cast ballots. But the ballots will automatically be sent with prepaid postage to all registered voters without the need for an application, Murphy's order said.

Despite misgivings, some political operatives acknowledge that vote-by-mail has become more popular in recent years. As in-person voting on Election Day has steadily declined, the number of U.S. voters who voted early, absentee or by mail more than doubled from 24.9 million in 2016, according to the Federal Election Assistance Commission.

The June primary could also prove to be an unplanned beta-test for the system, a chance to work out the kinks and improve the process for the fall contest — especially if the state and nation are hit with a possible second wave of the virus.

Others argue that it is ultimately the appeal of the candidates that determines the turnout. If voters are motivated to support a candidate, they'll vote regardless of how the ballots are cast.

"If they are interested [in a candidate] they will do it,'' Russell said. "If they are not, they won't.''

Charlie Stile is New Jersey’s preeminent political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com Twitter: @politicalstile