The novel coronavirus pandemic has presented some serious challenges to the American electoral process.
To solve these new public health challenges, some states have delayed primary voting. Other states have implemented social-distancing measures at polling locations, with mixed results. Others yet have geared up to increase mail-in ballot capacity.
Each of these circumstances raise different issues for how voters can choose a candidate in this year’s primary election.
Some Democratic primaries, for example, are now scheduled for after the deadline previously set for choosing a Democratic candidate — and only weeks before the Democratic National Convention.
Plus, all of these now-complicated primaries lead up to a nationwide voting day in November. Could these primary delays somehow delay America’s choice for the next president? More specifically, can the president himself delay, cancel or change the circumstances of November’s election?
And as our electoral process is tested by all of these new voting measures, what new issues might emerge when it comes to ensuring everyone’s vote is counted?
On this week’s episode of the“Can He Do That?” podcast, national politics reporter Isaac Stanley-Becker explains what’s been happening at the state primary level, and election law expert Ned Foley of The Ohio State University lays out what can-- and legally can’t-- happen in the general election.
Additional coronavirus resources:

• washingtonpost.com/virusnewsletter
• washingtonpost.com/coronavirus
• washingtonpost.com/podcasts

Related episodes

• The U.S. stumbled at the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Can we make up for lost time?
• Does the president have much power to control a viral outbreak?