By Sadie Shepherd
UNIVERSITY CENTER – As the coronavirus pandemic closes schools, restaurants and entire cities across the nation, the presidential primary season continues – but not without a few hiccups.
Three states held primaries on Tuesday, March 17, as the panic surrounding the virus was becoming palpable to Americans. Florida, Illinois and Arizona voters took to the polls with the main deliberation being between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Ohio was also set to vote on Tuesday until the question of safety surrounding the virus came up. The Ohio primary will now take place in June.
While Illinois, Florida and Arizona chose to continue with their elections, the virus brought on many challenges.
In Florida and Illinois, polling locations were changed with very little notice to voters which – along with late poll openings and short-staffed voting halls – caused delay and discouragement for those waiting to vote.
These issues were directly related to the coronavirus pandemic, with officials scrambling to find safer alternate polling locations and many volunteer election workers opting to stay home to prevent risking infection.
The effects of these complications can be seen in low voter turnout. According to the Chicago Tribune, 30% of registered voters in the city made it to the polls this year, excluding absentee ballots, compared to 53.5% turnout in the 2016 presidential primary. The New York Times reported that day-of turnout in Florida also dwindled this year.
Despite the unforeseen circumstances that these states faced, the mail-in voting options that citizens utilized helped compensate for the reduction in day-of voting. Florida’s overall voter turnout ended up around 2 million, including 1.1 million who voted by mail – up from 1.7 million in the 2016 primary cycle.
Arizona defied the odds and had great turnouts both in-person and through mail-in means with around 500,000 people casting a ballot compared to 410,000 in 2016, according to Vox.
Coronavirus has not only caused uncertainty in the primary process, but has also caused the remaining presidential nominees to reevaluate their platforms. The candidates have been forced to cancel rallies nationwide, opting to connect with voters through virtual means with livestreaming.
Prior to the March 17 primaries, CNN hosted a debate in their Washington D.C. newsroom between Biden and Sanders. The debate was originally set to be hosted in Phoenix, Arizona to prepare for the contest in that state, but to minimize contamination risk for both the candidates and their supporters, the network changed locations and the event took place without an audience.
The virus and its implications dominated the first 40 minutes of the debate, allowing the candidates to outline their strategies to “flatten the curve” while also maintaining the economy.
Sanders took this opportunity to reaffirm his support of universal healthcare.
“We are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people,” Sanders said. “We’re spending so much money and yet we are not even prepared for this pandemic.”
Biden, on the other hand, says the solution is temporary relief for those affected by the virus.
“It has nothing to do with Medicare for all; that would not solve the problem at all,” said Biden. “We can take care of that right now by making sure that no one has to pay for treatment, period, because of the crisis. No one has to pay for whatever drugs are needed, period, because of the crisis. No one has to pay for hospitalization because of the crisis, period. That is a national emergency and that’s how it’s handled.”
While Biden won all three states on Tuesday, Sanders remains in the race as the fate of future primary contests and even the general election hang in the balance of the increasing threat of coronavirus.