Bernie Sanders is dropping out of the 2020 race. Tuesday’s debacle of an election in Wisconsin shows why he’s right to do so.
After a series of dramatic legal and political interventions, Wisconsin’s election went ahead with in-person voting despite the threat posed by the coronavirus pandemic. But relatively few polling places actually opened.
In Milwaukee, for example, just 5 out of 180 polling stations opened. This led to long lines of up to 400 people, often crowding together and violating social distancing guidelines despite best efforts. Worse, this debacle has called the legitimacy of the electoral process into question, with many questioning the results and one local Milwaukee official saying, “I do not consider this a legitimate election.”
.@journalsentinel intern @Pmcknightnews captured this iconic photo during yesterday’s election in Wisconsin. We know it’s hers, in part, because she politely but persistently reminded those who shared it w/o a photo credit. I look forward to your big career, Patricia McKnight. pic.twitter.com/NPpxrrUeuM
— Connie Schultz (@ConnieSchultz) April 8, 2020
There are still at least 50 people in line at Green Bay West High School. Folks near the door have waited 3.5 hours.
It’s almost 11 p.m. on Election Day in Wisconsin. pic.twitter.com/gy2CBaSydY
— Haley BeMiller (@haleybemiller) April 8, 2020
Turnout numbers will likely be quite low. It will take weeks to find out how many people contracted coronavirus after going out on Election Day and longer to figure out how many people died just to cast their vote.
Of course, there was no easy answer to the problem posed by Tuesday’s election, because it was not simply a private party’s presidential primary at stake. Yes, Democratic primary voters did choose between Joe Biden and Sanders, but there were also official local and statewide elections at stake, including for mayor of Milwaukee and a high-stakes state Supreme Court seat. This made postponing no easy call, because positions would have gone vacant for who knows how long.
However, there is still one clear takeaway from this debacle: Sanders’s decision to drop out is well-warranted.
Even if other elections needed to go forward, the voters motivated only by the presidential primary could have stayed home if Sanders wasn’t in the race.
The struggling socialist candidate blasted the Wisconsin disaster, saying that “people should not be forced to put their lives on the line to vote.” Surely, he is right. But he was himself contributing to this problem by obstinately continuing a primary campaign he had already convincingly lost.
Biden has a commanding delegate lead, and the party has coalesced around him. The presumptive nominee has repeatedly walloped Sanders in recent primary contests. Even left-wing analysts at Vox, usually more sympathetic to Sanders, admitted in mid-March that “Joe Biden has now essentially won the Democratic nomination,” calling it “nearly impossible” for Sanders to secure it at this point.
Sanders made an impressive run and has no doubt influenced the party. But practically speaking, there is no reason for him to continue his campaign at this point, to bring people out in future nominating contests which, in contrast to actual general elections such as the one in November, need not be held. While the headaches posed by holding elections amid a pandemic will plague policymakers either way, we will surely have an easier time ahead of us now that we don’t have to worry about future primary contests.
Sanders has done what is best for the country, rather than what is best for himself.
