Biden wins Hawaii Prez primary delayed by virus
Honolulu (US), May 24: Joe Biden won the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s party-run presidential primary on Saturday, which was delayed by more than a month because of the
Covid-19. Biden defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders 63% to 37%.
Biden won 16 of Hawaii’s delegates and Sanders will take eight. Biden has a total of 1,566 delegates to the party’s national convention, according to the count by the Associated Press. He needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination, a threshold he is projected to reach in June. A total of
35,044 voters cast ballots in the party-run primary.
All ballots were cast by mail. The party had initially planned to hold the primary on April 4 and had expected most party members would vote by mail and some would cast ballots at about 20 in-person polling sites. It began mailing ballots to registered party members in early March back when Sanders and Biden were the two front-runners and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was still maintaining her long-shot bid for the nomination.
But concerns about the spread of the Covid-19 forced the party to announce on March 20 it would cancel plans for in-person voting and allow only mail ballots. To give those who expected to vote in person on April 4 a chance to cast a ballot, the party said it would mail another round of ballots to members and wait until late May for them to be returned and counted. Amidst these shifts, Gabbard dropped out and endorsed Biden.
Sanders ended his bid and endorsed Biden on April 13. Voters were instructed to mark their top three choices on paper ballots. Only candidates receiving at least 15% of the votes cast in a given congressional district were to be allocated delegates.