Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Up for a vote
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Joe Biden won Ohio’s presidential primary Tuesday, clinching a contest that was less about the Democratic nomination and more about how states can conduct elections in the era of the coronavirus.
The primary was the first major test of statewide elections via mail amid an outbreak. And the results were mixed. There were reports of confusion but no widespread disruption.
Still, overall turnout appeared to be off. The secretary of state’s office said that about 1.5 million votes had been cast as of midday Saturday, down sharply from the 3.2 million cast in Ohio’s 2016 presidential primary.
“Within the context of the threat of the virus, it’s a decision that we will have made the best of,” Republican Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio election chief who chairs the bipartisan International Foundation for Electoral Systems, said of mail-in balloting.
Maryland was also balancing balloting and voter safety on Tuesday as polling centers conducted a special election to finish the term of the late Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings. Democrat Kweisi Mfume, a former NAACP leader, defeated Republican Kimberly Klacik in the congressional district, returning to the seat that he held before Cummings.
Originally scheduled for March 17, Ohio’s primary was abruptly delayed amid the virus outbreak, with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine recommending that in-person voting be rescheduled to June 2. But after a chaotic series of events, the Ohio General Assembly eventually passed a bill setting April 28 as the date for the vote-bymail primary. Ohio remains under a stay-at-home order.
The election involves nearly all voters running at least three pieces of mail — an application, a blank ballot and a completed one — through the U.S. Postal Service.
Ohio’s vote was being closely watched as a case study for how to proceed with elections if the pandemic doesn’t ease. States have taken different approaches, with Wisconsin proceeding with in-person voting earlier this month and New York saying Monday it would cancel its presidential primary, which was scheduled for June.
Some governors have suggested they would consider moving to an all-mail voting system for the November general election, something President Donald Trump has opposed. The National Conference of State Legislatures says five states currently conduct all elections entirely by mail: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah.
As he prepared for the results, Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose warned the process could be bumpy.
In-person voting was still available on Tuesday. Ohio law guarantees that any voter who doesn’t receive a ballot they requested by the legal deadline has the right to vote in person, meaning they could appear at county boards if they didn’t get one by Tuesday afternoon — or potentially sue.
LaRose and DeWine both championed Tuesday’s voteby-mail election, but the political dynamics could change as the coronavirus redraws the political landscape.
Jen Miller, the head of the League of Women Voters in Ohio, said it will be impossible to know how many people stayed home because they didn’t get a ballot in time.
Early voting began Feb. 19, so Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders could pick up Ohio delegates, despite suspending his campaign nearly three weeks ago.
Sanders has said he’d like to collect as many delegates as possible to influence the party platform at the Democratic National Convention, but he’s already endorsed Biden.
The former vice president has suggested that a convention already delayed from June until August because of the coronavirus may have to be held entirely online, further defusing the possibility of a nasty floor fight.