Millions of COVID-hit nursing home residents risk losing their vote

For months, the pandemic has curtailed nursing home residents’ freedom of movement and visits with family and friends. Now, it is threatening their ability to vote.

The 2.2 million residents of U.S. nursing homes and residential care facilities have been among the most vulnerable during the pandemic. But facility lockdowns, combined with COVID-driven revisions of voting procedures, mean that some residents may not get to the ballot box, researchers and election officials say.

It is “a really open question to what extent people in long-term care institutions are going to...