Will COVID-19 disrupt Election Day 2020?

Could the COVID-19 pandemic cause a delay in November’s presidential election?

The coronavirus outbreak has already caused disruptions in the 2020 election cycle, with a number of states delaying primaries and others scrambling to set up mail and absentee voting.

This week, New York state canceled its Democratic presidential primary, an unprecedented decision.

If the pandemic will be more of a roller coaster with peaks and troughs of cases until a vaccine is found, as many experts predict, it’s possible America could be in the midst of another shutdown come November.

In a speech during an online fundraiser on April 23, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joseph R. Biden Jr. told listeners he was concerned the current administration would try to postpone the election.

Is that even possible?

Here, Rogers Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania whose research focuses on constitutional law, American political thought, and modern legal and political theory, explains what the constitutional process would be for postponing a presidential election:

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