In spite of everything, voters in Florida, Illinois and Arizona refused to be intimidated by the coronavirus outbreak on Tuesday.
They turned out in huge numbers, often waited in long, slow, social-distanced lines to cast their Democratic primary ballots.
In Cook County — Chicago and its close suburbs — voting was extended for an hour to permit as many people as possible to cast their ballots.
And by all accounts, Joe Biden clinched the Democratic nomination for president.
Biden got upwards of two-thirds of the votes in Florida and Illinois, putting him on what appears to be an easy path toward the nomination even before his Arizona win, and allowing him to concentrate on defeating Donald Trump in November.
The results as reported Wednesday morning were 66.9% for Biden in Florida, 22.8%, for Sanders. In Illinois, Biden got 59.1% while Sanders got 36.1%; and in Arizona, 43.6% for Biden, 31.6% for Sanders.
Biden ended up building his overall lead over Sanders, for a total of 1132 delegates, while Sanders has 817. The nomination requires 1,991 delegate votes.
Wednesday morning, a spokesperson for Bernie Sanders’ campaign released a statement:
Ohio Democrats were also supposed to vote, but the governor declared a health emergency and postponed the primary.
Elsewhere, the pandemic certainly affected the turnout. Understaffed election workers at some polling stations were lonely throughout the day. Early voting likely affected that low turnout, as well.
“Amid anecdotal reports of low turnout and hand sanitizer shortages, Tuesday’s contests unfolded under a cloud of uncertainty at the same time that the number of reported coronavirus cases continued to grow by hundreds every hour,” reported CNN.
But Biden was declared the winner within minutes after all polls closed in both Florida and Illinois, collecting at least ___ committed delegates to the Democratic National Convention in July and an all-but-insurmountable lead in the race for the nomination.
What was supposed to be a third “Super Tuesday” was diminished when Ohio’s governor postponed the state’s primary due to virus concerns.
But that didn’t matter for Biden: it was a triumph on a primary day unique in U.S. history.
“These are the first primaries to be held amid the heightened fear and restrictions triggered by the coronavirus,” reported the New York Times.
“The Trump administration has recommended avoiding groups of more than 10 people, and turnout was down in both Illinois and Florida on Tuesday. But many voters had already cast ballots early or by mail, including many older voters who are at higher risk of getting sick.”
Sanders clearly read the writing on the wall, though he offered no hint of dropping out.
Even before the polls closed on Tuesday, Sanders ignored the projected results, sticking to policy issues and the pandemic in an internet live stream.
Referring to the coronavirus crisis, he said: “We must make sure everyone who has a job right now receives the paychecks they need,” the Associated Press reported.
So now the 2020 political clash turns to the real heavyweight bout, coming up in November: Biden v. Trump.
