Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Missouri Election Judge Dies After Working Polls Despite COVID Diagnosis
A Missouri election judge supervisor has died after testing positive for Covid-19 and then working at a polling site on Election Day, local health officials said Thursday. While the cause of death has not been given, the St. Charles County Department of Public Health said in a news release, the person received a positive test result on October 30. (Jones and Harlan, 11/5)
Contact tracing has started and county health officials have contacted the other nine election workers at the site, who were advised to be tested for the virus, St. Charles County, Missouri, spokeswoman Mary Enger said. The infected poll worker鈥檚 duties did not 鈥渢ypically鈥 include handling iPads, or having close contact with the 1,858 voters such as taking voter identification, Enger said. (Salter, 11/5)
Almost 2,000 voters were at the site that day, the county said. It鈥檚 unclear if any were directly exposed. But some were angry on Thursday. Maggie Pohlmeier, a St. Charles doctor and mom, said she has gone to great lengths to keep herself, her patients and her son safe during the pandemic. 鈥淔or me to show up and do my civic duty 鈥 and to be exposed in that instance when I have been as careful as I have,鈥 Pohlmeier said. 鈥淚 am completely irate over this.鈥 (Merrilees, 11/5)
In updates on the status of ongoing vote counting and mail-in ballots 鈥
Some Republican lawmakers are criticizing President Donald Trump鈥檚 unsupported claim that Democrats are trying to 鈥渟teal鈥 the election, saying Trump鈥檚 comments undermine the U.S. political process and the bedrock notion that all Americans should have their vote counted. (Daly, 11/6)
Election officials in several states said Thursday they are worried about the safety of their staffs amid a stream of threats and gatherings of angry protesters outside their doors, drawn by President Donald Trump鈥檚 baseless claims of widespread fraud in the race for the White House. (Merchant and Sullivan, 11/6)
More than 150,000 ballots were caught in U.S. Postal Service processing facilities and not delivered by Election Day, agency data shows, including more than 12,000 in five of the states that have yet to be called for either President Trump or Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Despite assurances from Postal Service leaders that agency officials were conducting daily sweeps for misplaced ballots, the mail service acknowledged in a court filing Thursday that thousands of ballots had not been processed in time, and that more ballots were processed Wednesday than on Election Day. (Bogage and Ingraham, 11/5)
The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps Thursday and were being delivered to election officials. In a court filing early Friday, USPS said 1,076 ballots, had been found at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing center, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others found at other Pennsylvania processing centers. (Shepardson, 11/6)
