WASHINGTON _ Eight employees with the Progressive Turnout Project, which has been knocking on doors to turn out voters in the 2020 election in a dozen states since June, have tested positive for COVID-19, a top official with the Democratic-aligned group said, a development that has frightened some of the organization's staffers and underscored the risk of in-person campaigning amid an ongoing pandemic.
How each of the employees contracted the coronavirus is unknown, according to Alex Morgan, the group's executive director, who said that none of the eight spread it to each other. But Morgan acknowledged that five field staffers tested positive for the disease after speaking in person with voters, none of whom have been notified that they might have been exposed.
Morgan defended the decision not to contact potentially exposed voters, saying the safety precautions taken by the group _ including distributing masks to employees while mandating all conversations be held at least six feet apart _ meant that the risk of spreading the virus was nearly non-existent.
