Portugal draws fire with plan for COVID-positive voters

By BARRY HATTON
Associated Press

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s government is under fire over its preparations for people infected with COVID-19 to vote in an upcoming snap election. Officials estimate that as many as 600,000 eligible voters could be infected and confined at home on the day of the Jan. 30 election. They are to be allowed to go to polling stations as an exceptional measure. But the government recommends that they vote only in a 6 p.m.-7 p.m. time slot, when polling stations are traditionally less busy. The National Association of Public Health Doctors expressed astonishment at the measures, saying they represented “a failure of planning.”