WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020. THE WASHINGTON POST eZ m2 A
BidenSanders199,139,42.29.129CANDIDATE VOTES%%%DELEGATES64.2% reporting as of 12:04 a.m.Arizona
67 delegatesFlorida
BidenSanders1,068,394,61.22.8627CANDIDATE VOTES%%%DELEGATES96.3% reporting as of 12:14 a.m.219 delegatesIllinois
BidenSanders791,483,59.36.4925CANDIDATE VOTES%%%DELEGATES90.6% reporting as of 12:07 a.m.155 delegatesCandidate is leading
in this countyPhoenixYumaFlagstaffTucsonTallahasseeTampaOrlandoMiamiSpringfieldJolietChicagoCarbondaleelection 2020
Democratic
contest
results
441 Delegates at staKes ource: edison research
BrIttanY renee maYes/tHe WasHIngton PostJoe Biden
Bernie Sanders
DELEGATE COUNT GAINED TOTAL
As of 12:14 a.m.971
737
Clarke said the problems Tues-
day offer a clear warning to state
and local officials to better pre-
pare for the coming primary con-
tests and the November general
election. She urged them to ex-
pand access to voting by mail,
including offering postage-paid
envelopes, lifting restrictions on
who may return ballots for home-
bound voters, and putting an end
to signature-matching procedures
that she said amount to “junk
science” and lead to legitimate
ballots b eing tossed.
“Eighteen states impose restric-
tions and barriers on voters who
seek to cast absentee ballots.
Now’s a moment for those states to
abandon those restrictions,”
Clarke s aid.
Democratic National Commit-
tee Chairman To m Perez also
urged states to adopt vote-by-
mail, no-excuse absentee voting
and e xtended polling place hours.
“A s our country deals with the
uncertainty o f COVID-19, i t is crit-
ical that states provide clarity and
not c onfusion, which could lead t o
disenfranchising voters,” Perez
said in a statement.
Democrats in the states that
went forward with primaries on
Tuesday reported a sharp rise in
the u se of early voting and vote-by-
mail options. In Arizona, there
were more early votes by Demo-
crats this y ear than total votes cast
in the party’s 2 016 primary. A nd in
Florida, 141,560 more Democrats
voted by mail this year than they
did f our y ears a go.
Complaints from voters who
went to polls in person raisedquestions about states’ decision to
proceed with Tuesday’s primaries
amid a deepening health crisis. Ye t
criticism also poured in over
Ohio’s decision to postpone its
primary, a sign o f election o fficials’
difficult position.
“Our democracy needs to con-
tinue,” said Lori Lightfoot, the
mayor of C hicago. “But a s we have
been winnowing the size of gath-
erings, people are necessarily ner-
vous, and that has affected the
availability of polling places, as
well as the availability of election
judges.”
Lightfoot issued a warning to
states with primaries coming up,
urging them to begin planning
now, and to expand options for
voters to participate early and by
mail. The city, s he said, received an
“unprecedented number of appli-
cations to vote by mail.”
Five states have now delayed
their contests — Georgia, Ken-
tucky, Louisiana, Maryland and
Ohio — with others expected to
follow suit i n the coming days.
Ohio’s handling of its primary
served as a cautionary tale.
State officials announced Mon-
day afternoon that they would
seek to postpone the election be-
cause of the coronavirus. As coun-
ty o fficials spread the w ord that n o
in-person voting would take place
on Tuesday, a judge in Franklin
County rejected a delay.
In the end, with the backing of
Gov. Mike DeWine (R), the Ohio
Department of Health ordered
polls c losed, citing a “health emer-
gency.” Election officials said in-
person v oting would take place onJune 2.
Voters and candidates were dis-
mayed by how events unfolded.
Jeffrey A. S ites, a Democrat r un-
ning in the primary to challenge
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), said
that while it was “crucially impor-
tant” to protect people’s health,
the whiplash from officials
“served Ohioans and the demo-
cratic process poorly.”
“I believe we’re owed an ac-
counting of how exactly the fiasco
of the last 24 hours came about,”
Sites wrote in a statement posted
on Facebook.
The confusion created uncer-
tainty for the campaigns of f ormer
vice president Joe Biden and Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who were
vying for the 441 delegates that
were up for g rabs i n the r emaining
three states Tuesday.
Biden had hoped to capitalize
on the momentum he built in the
past two weeks, with help from
older voters who typically vote in
large numbers but are vulnerable
to the coronavirus. In Florida,
some voters received a robo-text
from his campaign on Tuesday
asking: “Can you vote safely for
Joe?”
Biden’s advisers sought to pre-
empt any notion that lower turn-
out would undermine Tuesday’s
results.
“While voter turnout on Elec-
tion Day itself m ay b e lower due to
COVID-19 concerns, we believe
that, with early vote and vote by
mail, overall turnout will be
roughly on pace for 2016 in Arizo-
na and Florida and roughly on
pace for 2018 in Illinois, and thatvoter turnout in all three states
will reflect the population at
large,” Biden deputy campaign
manager Kate Bedingfield wrote
in a memo.
Tuesday’s voting problems ap-
peared to be the most widespread
in and around Chicago.
At a precinct in Barrington, a
northwest suburb, election j udges
did not show up when doors
opened at 6 a.m., frustrating
would-be voters. A spokesman for
local election officials said re-
placements were sent “shortly be-
fore 9 a.m.”
By the end of the day, the Cook
County Clerk’s Office extended
voting in 40 suburban precincts
by one hour to 8 p.m. because of
the extensive issues. Suburban
Cook County saw its lowest voter
turnout in 12 years: About
202,000 voters came out Tuesday
by 8 p.m. Central; in 2008, the
total was about 525,000 voters.
However, the overall turnout,
which includes early voting, to-
taled 368,503, which was the sec-
ond-lowest turnout in 12 years; in
2012, total turnout was 3 29,537.
When Emily Ioppolo, a theater
production artist, and her boy-
friend went to vote at 6 a.m. at a
church in their Lakeview neigh-
borhood, on the North Side of
Chicago, they encountered empty
tables. Precinct workers told t hem
that ballots a nd m achines had not
yet been d elivered.
The couple r eturned after 7 a.m.
and, once again, nothing was
there. “ They w ere trying t o call the
board of elections but no one was
picking up,” s he said.Youngrae KIm For tHe WasHIngton Post
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Sheldon Shacket, 79, wears a CPAP mask as he leaves a polling place in Chicago on Tuesday. He
said he has been isolating the past few days amid the coronavirus pandemic. “The likelihood of me surviving is pretty low, so I’m
enjoying every day like it’s my last day,” he said. A voter holds an “I Voted” sticker while wearing gloves after casting a ballot in
Oldsmar, Fla. Richard Rudberg votes in Chicago. Volunteer Carol Iwata wipes down a voting machine in Chicago.BY ELISE VIEBECK,
AMY GARDNER,
ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER
AND MARK GUARINOVoters in Chicago on Tuesday
confronted shuttered precincts,
missing poll workers and con-
fused officials struggling to ad-
minister a n election d uring a pub-
lic health crisis, a chaotic situation
that voting advocates said created
barriers for those trying t o partici-
pate in the state’s Democratic
presidential primary.
The problems in Illinois ap-
peared to be the most a cute e xam-
ples of issues in three states that
voters faced related to the corona-
virus outbreak. Arizona, Florida
and Illinois chose to proceed with
their contests this week, while a
fourth state — Ohio — postponed
in a controversial, 11th-hour move
on Monday n ight.
The last-minute challenge fac-
ing election officials was unprece-
dented, experts said: making sure
people could visit polling loca-
tions and cast their ballots safely
— even as health officials were
issuing dire warnings about the
need to stay isolated to stop the
spread of covid-19, the disease
caused by the virus, a dvocates say.
In locations around Chicago,
voters arrived at polling places to
find no election j udges to run their
precincts, or no hand sanitizer or
wipes for voting machines. Some
voting locations in Palm Beach
County, Fla., where officials said
there appeared to be lower than
usual voter turnout on Tuesday,
had not opened by late morning.
And i n Arizona, some p eople were
directed to vote at municipal
buildings that were otherwise
closed to the public, causing con-
fusion.
Even in Ohio, some voters
showed up at p olling sites on Tues-
day morning only to learn that
in-person voting was delayed u ntil
June 2. In some locations, advo-
cates said, no signs were posted to
indicate the change, and a hotline
for voters to report problems was
flooded w ith calls.
The challenges Tuesday inten-
sified questions about how subse-
quent primaries — and the gener-
al election — can go on if the
pandemic does not subside. Many
have called for states to conduct
all voting by mail, but there are
questions of whether Congress
has the votes to pass such a man-
date, as well as about states’ abili-
ties to implement such a massive
new initiative in a matter of
months. Only three states — Colo-
rado, Washington and Oregon —
currently run elections with mail-
in ballots only.
“We’ve been hearing from
countless voters who are unsure
about the status of voting today,”
Kristen Clarke, president and ex-
ecutive director of the National
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights Under Law, said on a con-
ference c all with r eporters.
“It’s unlike anything we have
ever seen before,” Clarke said of
the s ituation i n Ohio, where v oters
“went to bed” on Monday night
unsure whether the elections
would take place.
Eventually, Ioppolo, 27, walked
to another voting center open to
all residents a nd c ast her ballot for
Sanders.
“I understand we’re experienc-
ing social distancing r ight now, but
when the governor and the mayor
and my alderman say we are still
holding elections, it is the board of
election’s job to run smoothly,” she
said. “It’s not like my polling place
was closed down due to a social
distancing effort — it was open.
That i s very frustrating.”
In Palatine, a northwest suburb
of Chicago, Kim Inman, 62, said
her family urged her not to serve
as an election judge this year out
of fears of contracting the corona-
virus. She decided to go ahead
after she received an email from
the Cook County Clerk’s Office
promising that her location would
have hand sanitizer and disinfec-
tant wipes.
When she showed up at 6 a.m.,
the supplies weren’t there, and
they still had not arrived by late
morning. Two of the four judges
also did not show up, so Inman
was left staffing the precinct with
only a high school student to h elp.
“It’s very disappointing,” she
said. “This is so unusual and dif-
ferent — I don’t k now what’s g oing
on.”
As voting continued haltingly
through the morning in some ar-
eas, election officials sought to
reassure dozens of voters who
complained on social m edia.
Those efforts did not quell the
anxiety. Timna Axel, communica-
tions director for the Chicago
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil
Rights, said the group has re-
ceived an unprecedented volume
of calls for a primary election,
including an entirely new catego-
ry of complaint: from confused
election w orkers.
“They’re brand new, substitut-
ing for those who canceled,” she
said. “We’ve never gotten those
calls b efore on this number.”
Speaking to reporters Tuesday
afternoon, Illinois Governor J.B.
Pritzker (D) said he offered the
Chicago Board of Elections
“plains c lothed” personnel from
the National Guard as potential
election judges and volunteers
“should they need i t.”
“They did not want that. We
offered the opportunity,” h e said.
A spokesman for the Chicago
Board of Elections did not re-
spond t o a request for comment.
In Florida, Palm Beach County
had s ome of the w orst disruptions
in the state, said Liza McClen-
aghan of Common Cause Florida:
By midmorning, some polling
places had not opened, some
opened late a nd some w ere under-
staffed.
elise. [email protected]
[email protected]
isaac.stanley-becker@
washpost.com
[email protected]guarino reported from chicago.
michael scherer, Felicia sonmez and
rachel chason in Washington, lori
rozsa in Palm Beach, Fla., Joanna
connors in cleveland, and Holly Bailey
and Jimmy magahern in Phoenix
contributed to this report.Closures, confusion, fewer people at voting locations
Youngrae KIm For tHe WasHIngton Post ZacK WIttman For tHe WasHIngton PostYoungrae KIm For tHe WasHIngton Post