Check your name, check your temperature

Some dos and don’ts from elections conducted during COVID-19:

Voters were asked to bring their own pen in the recent Sri Lanka elections. 

First Japan banned handshakes on the campaign trail in favor of fist bumps. Those were soon banned as well.

Singapore reserved the hours of 7pm to 8pm for voters who were unwell or had been asked to stay at home.  

In South Korea, special polling stations were set up in front of quarantine clinics. 

Poland tried to rush a postal ballot. Postal workers pushed back. The election was eventually delayed and conducted at polling stations. 

Some 4000 Israelis in quarantine handed their ballots to poll workers in hazmat suits. The ballot boxes were lined with plastic.

In advance of the assembly elections in the Indian state of Bihar, the age necessary for requesting a postal ballot has been reduced from 80 to 65.

Burundi kicked the WHO out of the country shortly before the election. Many voters did not wear masks or practice social distancing. Soon after the election, the outgoing president died of the coronavirus. 

Surinamese officials "dabbed blue ink on the voters' fingers with an ear swab rather than letting them dip their fingers in an ink pot." 

During the pandemic, the Mongolian government developed a new app that would allow citizens to vote on the best use of development funds. Mongolia has reported 306 cases and zero fatalities of COVID-19.  

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran told voters that the coronavirus was a plot to keep Iranis away from the polls. Shortly after the election, the country became an epicenter of the disease.