New York Times: Pandemic, Protests and Police: An Election Like No Other

WASHINGTON — On the biggest day of voting since the coronavirus disrupted public life, Americans cast ballots in extraordinary circumstances on Tuesday, heading to the polls during a national health and economic crisis and amid the widespread protests and police deployments that have disrupted communities across the nation.

It made for some unusual scenes in this most unusual election season.

In the nation’s capital, for instance, polling places are open until 8 p.m., while the citywide curfew in place begins at 7 p.m. (the police did not anticipate arresting voters who broke the curfew).

In Philadelphia, 70 percent of polling places were closed while the authorities banned vehicle traffic and shut down public transportation in Center City, the downtown area, because of the unrest, meaning the only ways to get to polling sites were by foot or by bicycle.

And in Indianapolis, where 90 percent of polling locations were closed, voters faced long lines outdoors in 90-degree heat to vote in the remaining spots.

The voting also came amid a sustained assault on the electoral system by President Trump, who has falsely attacked mail voting as biased toward Democrats, threatened to withhold federal resources from states that mailed ballots to voters and suggested in general, with no evidence, the Democrats are looking to rig the election.

Voters in eight states and Washington, D.C., were choosing nominees for congressional and local offices while casting perfunctory primary ballots in the presidential contest, which has long been set between Mr. Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. …