There is NO way primaries should be held today

Voters in three states — Arizona, Florida and Illinois — are casting ballots in the 2020 presidential race today. Or, if anecdotal reports are to be believed, not casting votes.

At one polling place in Hialeah, Florida (in Miami-Dade County), just five — FIVE — voters had cast ballots in the first 90 minutes of voting, according to CNN’s Leyla Santiago.

Reports were widespread in Illinois that polling places lacked adequate election personnel, making it impossible to cast ballots.

“There is nothing magical about March 17 unless you are St. Patrick,” said Chicago Elections spokesman Jim Allen. “This is not anywhere near a normal election. We could see the snowball coming down the hill.”

(Allen’s claims were immediately disputed by Anne Caprara, chief of staff to Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker. “This is a lie,” she tweeted. “And frankly, given what we are dealing with in this moment, I’m disgusted that Jim Allen would lie like this. We offered them the national guard, young volunteers and assistance with keeping polling places clean.”)

In Arizona, election officials chose to close 80 polling places in Maricopa County where Phoenix is due to the lack of personnel to staff them.

The simple conclusion? There is NO way that in-person voting should have been held today. None. Especially given new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration that recommend a) no gatherings of more than 10 people and b) that older people (65+) simply stay at home to avoid the risk.

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine got it right. When a state court refused his request on Monday to delay the primary, DeWine simply closed all polling places — explaining it this way:

“During this time when we face an unprecedented public health crisis, to conduct an election tomorrow would force poll workers and voters to place themselves at an unacceptable health risk of contracting coronavirus. As such, @DrAmyActon will order the polls closed as a health emergency. While the polls will be closed tomorrow, Secretary of State @FrankLaRose will seek a remedy through the courts to extend voting options so that every voter who wants to vote will be granted that opportunity.”

(President Donald Trump said Tuesday that “you could probably violate” the rule of 10 for an election.)

While the likes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rightly note that lots of people have either voted by mail or through the early voting process (“We’re not going to panic,” DeSantis said), the truth is that there’s no way — given the rapid ramp-up of the restrictions from coronavirus — that early voting and vote by mail will make up for the number of people who are nervous enough about coronavirus to not show up and/or the number of election officials who simply don’t show up.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders voiced skepticism about carrying on with election business as usual during the coronavirus epidemic following Sunday’s CNN debate.

“I would hope that governors listen to the public health experts, and what they are saying as you just indicated, we don’t want gatherings of more than 50 people,” he said. “I’m thinking about some of the elderly people sitting behind the desks, registering people, doing all that stuff. Does that make a lot of sense? I’m not sure that it does.”

On Tuesday, Sanders made clear his campaign wasn’t doing any of its normal get-out-the-vote efforts for these primaries. Tweeted Sanders:

“While Arizona, Florida and Illinois are still voting today, going to the polls amid the coronavirus outbreak is a personal decision and we respect whichever choice voters make. If you do go to the polls, please see CDC guidance on keeping yourself safe:”

To be clear: Votes will be cast and counted in Arizona, Florida and Illinois. A winner — if polls are to be believed, that will likely be former Vice President Joe Biden — will be announced.

But holding primaries amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic isn’t the best of democracy. It limits the amount of people who can have their voice heard. And that is a bad thing.