The coronavirus, raging in battleground states, looms over election day

CLEVELAND - They voted from cars and at outdoor tables. They stood in lines spaced far apart. They strapped on masks and pumped sanitiser into their palms.

The virus that has left millions of people out of work and killed more than 230,000 people in the United States will be one of the most significant challenges for the winner of the presidential race, and it loomed over every chapter of the election, down to the final ballots. The pandemic, which drove record numbers of Americans to cast ballots early or by mail, rarely strayed far from voters' minds.

"The government has failed all the small businesses," said Mr Gil, who opened a gym in January but said the pandemic forced him to close. Deaths have increased slowly to more than 800 daily, more than in early July but far fewer than in the spring. More on this topic In Wisconsin, a prize eyed by both parties, more than 100,000 virus cases have been reported in the past month, and deaths and hospitalisations have spiked, leaving many to fear that worse news could be ahead.

Looking more like a row of bank tellers, they greeted voters, who were expected to give an electronic signature by slipping on disposable plastic finger shields and then guiding their hands under a narrow opening.Ms Raven Payne, a 25-year-old first-time poll worker, had one job all day: sanitation. When Americans found themselves voting in the middle of the 1918 flu pandemic, infections also surged in October, peaking around Election Day.

But with cases soaring nationwide and health officials overwhelmed, it may be difficult to determine in the coming weeks what effect voting may have had. More on this topic Dr Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, issued an urgent plea on Monday for an"aggressive balanced approach that is not being implemented", in a private memo that was earlier reported by The Washington Post.

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