Biden strides ahead

Former VP delivers surprise win in Washington state primary

JOE Biden has been declared the winner of last week’s Democratic presidential primary in Washington state, giving him victories in five out of six states that voted on March 10.

After nearly a week of counting votes, the former vice-president held on to a small lead over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders that turned out to be insurmountable.

Washington was a state that Mr Sanders had been hoping to win. In 2016, he won more than two-thirds of the delegates from the Washington caucuses over Hillary Clinton.

Of the state’s 89 pledged delegates, only 31 are allocated based on the statewide result.

The remaining 58 are determined based on the results of the state’s 10 congressional districts, and those results might not be calculated until the election is certified by the secretary of state’s office, which could be as late as March 27.

Mr Biden won four other states last Tuesday: Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan and Idaho. Mr Sanders won North Dakota.

In Washington, Democrats used the vote-by-mail presidential primary – moved up this year from May – for the first time to allocate delegates instead of the smaller caucuses used in previous years.

Four states – Arizona, Ohio, Illinois and Florida – are scheduled to hold primaries on Tuesday.

The four presidential primaries scheduled for Tuesday will go on as scheduled, after a judge in Ohio turned down a request to delay that state’s election over concerns of widespread disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

With the ruling, Ohio joins Arizona, Florida and Illinois in proceeding with their presidential primaries.

Officials in the states have said they are making preparations to ensure the safety of voters, even as concerns mounted that there will not be enough poll workers in some precincts.