Primaries a test for campaigning during outbreak

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Tuesday’s primaries in eight states are the biggest test to date of campaigning during the coronavirus era, a way for parties to test-drive new ways of getting out the vote during a time when it can be dangerous to leave your home.

Voters from Pennsylvania to Iowa to New Mexico will cast ballots in both the Democratic presidential contest, where former Vice President Joe Biden is the only contender with an active campaign, and a host of down-ballot primaries for everything from governors to state representatives. Many states postponed elections scheduled between mid-March and May to the date because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Unable to send candidates out to barnstorm the states or volunteers to knock on voters’ doors, campaigns have had to improvise. One Pennsylvania Republican congressional campaign recruited 100 people to hand-write thousands of letters to voters urging support. Democrats have created a phone-banking model almost along the lines of a technology support hub, where knowledgeable volunteers and staffers can guide confused voters, step by step, through the process of voting by mail.

“Any plan you had three months ago is out the window,” said Brock Lowrance, a Republican strategist working on two Montana races.

Some voting experts predict half or more of all ballots cast in the November election will be sent through the mail, as the Centers for Disease Control recommends as a way to lessen risk of exposure to the virus at polling stations. States have scrambled to adjust to the new reality with some sending every voter an absentee ballot request.

The greatest attention is on Pennsylvania, however. It’s simultaneously the biggest state voting on Tuesday, the only one that is likely to be a presidential battleground in November and the state that’s seen the biggest shift in voting in the COVID-19 era.

That’s because this is the first statewide election under a new, more permissive mail voting law passed last year. In 2016, only 4.6% of the state’s voters cast a ballot by mail. Now 21% of all the state’s 8.5 million voters have already requested absentee ballots.

Democrats are overwhelmingly the ones asking to vote by mail — 1.3 million have filed requests, compared with 525,000 Republicans, state records show.

That’s partly a reflection of GOP distrust of mail voting that’s been stoked by President Donald Trump, who’s claimed without evidence it will lead to widespread fraud. Some Pennsylvania Republicans have worried Trump is hobbling the party by making its voters distrust the easiest method of voting during the pandemic.