Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are set to push aside more than 200 years of House precedent with a Friday vote to let lawmakers serve as proxies for colleagues quarantined or otherwise stuck at home by the coronavirus pandemic.

This low-tech version of remote voting is the Democrats’ temporary answer to health and travel concerns raised by dozens of lawmakers. It would alter House rules to let individual members to cast votes on behalf of as many as 10 colleagues.

It’s been dismissed by Republicans as a way to let lawmakers stay home while other Americans are going to work and as a move that would have constitutional implications.

Several lawmakers have contracted Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, and dozens of others placed themselves in self-quarantine after exposure to someone who was infected. The sister of California Representative Maxine Waters died as a result of an infection.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said a failure of the House to adopt the “use of new tools” will lead to a sidelined legislative branch and an upset in the balance of power enshrined in the Constitution.

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