Concerns about spreading the coronavirus are causing political and logistical chaos in the four states with scheduled primary elections on Tuesday (Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio) and complicating campaign activities for Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
In an eleventh-hour announcement Monday night, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said that in-person voting for the state’s Tuesday primary was canceled due to the virus despite a court decision earlier on Tuesday denying a request to postpone the primary.
In Illinois, poll locations are understaffed due to election judges not showing up to the sites amid the outbreak. The Chicago election board told reporters Tuesday that they had “extremely low turnout” in the morning. Poll locations are supposed to have hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes available, but some locations have not received any.
Chicago’s election board accused Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday of rejecting a proposal to prohibit in-person voting on Tuesday and move to a vote-by-mail election. The chief of staff for the governor called the claim a “lie,” adding that the board is “worried about scoring cheap political points.”
[Click here for complete coronavirus coverage]
The Governor has been trying to balance continuity of government, not disenfranchising people who already voted, avoiding a legal crisis & keeping everyone safe. The Chicago Board of Elections have been worried about scoring cheap political points.
— Anne Caprara (@anacaprana) March 17, 2020
Maricopa County, the most populous county in Arizona, closed about one-third of poll locations on Tuesday due to a lack of adequate sanitation supplies, some polling locations canceling, and a lack of poll staff. The county adjusted rules to allow residents to vote at any of the 151 remaining poll locations rather than just the one closest to them. Because about 80% of Arizona voters opt to receive their ballots by mail, the state may be less affected by coronavirus disruptions.
Several states with later primaries, Georgia, Kentucky, and Maryland, announced in the last few days that they are delaying those elections due to the coronavirus.
Florida, meanwhile, is proceeding with a mostly normal Tuesday election, though it did close voting sites at nursing homes.
“We’re definitely voting,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday. “They voted during the Civil War. We are going to vote.”
In a normal situation, four major state primaries accounting for more than 500 nominating delegates to the Democratic national convention would dominate political coverage and energy. But concerns about spreading the virus have hampered the candidates’ ability to encourage any get-out-the-vote activities for fear of worsening the pandemic or looking insensitive.
Neither Biden nor Sanders has held in-person campaign events in the last week, and the Vermont senator’s campaign is not even encouraging people to leave their homes to go vote.
“We are not doing traditional GOTV outreach in states holding primary contests today. We are making clear to voters that we believe going to the polls amid the coronavirus outbreak is a personal decision, and we respect whichever choice they make,” Sanders communications director Mike Casca said Tuesday. “We are also passing along guidance from the CDC on staying safe during the crisis.
