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Election officials in many states are hoping more people like Stoker sign up because they are anticipating severe shortages of people to run the polls on Nov. 3. The shortage may lead to long lines or even numerous poll locations being closed. The pandemic has exacerbated an already-critical situation. In a 2018 survey by the Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency that helps local jurisdictions conduct elections, 70% of the nearly 6,500 jurisdictions surveyed in all 50 states plus territories responded that it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to get enough poll workers. In addition, more than two-thirds were 61 or older. (Povich, 9/15)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Exodus Fills Vacation Towns With New Medical Pressures 

The staff at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is accustomed to the number of patients tripling or even quadrupling each summer when wealthy Manhattanites flee the city for the Hamptons. But this year, the COVID pandemic has upended everything. The 125-bed hospital on the southern coast of Long Island has seen a huge upswing in demand for obstetrics and delivery services. The pandemic has families who once planned to deliver babies in New York or other big cities migrating to the Hamptons for the near term. (Hawryluk, Houghton and Andrews, 9/15)

As COVID-19 swept through the South, Mel Prince watched with alarm as some of the HIV positive patients she helps in the rural Black Belt stopped showing up for lab tests and doctor’s visits. “The virus has made it very challenging for us,” said Prince, executive director of Selma AIR. “We just continue to let people know we’re here, and we’re trying our best to take care of their needs.” (Thanawala, 9/14)

Imagine a 50-year-old woman with uncontrolled diabetes walks into the emergency department with cough, fever and difficulty breathing. Two minutes later, a 75-year-old healthy woman walks into the same emergency department with the same symptoms. They both urgently need a ventilator to stay alive, with pus and fluid filling their lungs, but there is only one left in the city. Do you pick the older, healthier patient or the younger, sicker one? (Nakhasi, 9/14)