Curfews, pandemic test primary voters
Voters navigated curfews and health concerns in a slate of primary contests on Tuesday that tested the nation’s ability to host elections amid dueling crises and moved Joe Biden closer to formally clinching the Democratic presidential nomination.
In all, nine states and the District of Columbia held primary elections to decide a series of state and federal contests, including the 2020 presidential race. With no real competition, Biden and President Donald Trump easily won their respective primary elections in Indiana, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Mexico, Montana and the night’s biggest prize: Pennsylvania. Biden also won South Dakota.
Voters waited in long lines hours after polls closed in some cases, brushing up against curfews in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, two cities rocked by protests following the police killing of George Floyd. Officials in both places said voters wouldn’t be arrested for breaking curfew, but thousands of protesters defied the mayors’ orders at the same time, setting up a potential clash with law enforcement agencies and National Guard troops patrolling the streets during a fifth night of social unrest.
Pennsylvania, which offered the day’s biggest trove of delegates, also represented a significant test case for Republicans and Democrats working to strengthen their operations in a premier general election battleground.
Voters were forced to brave long lines in “militarized zones” because officials consolidated the vast majority of polling places in Philadelphia to minimize health risks, according to Erin Kramer, executive director of One Pennsylvania. She noted that some polling places in African American communities are in police stations.
“Having to stand in line while police officers are entering and exiting the building on police business is not exactly how people want to spend their election day,” Kramer said.
Biden was on the primary ballot in almost every state in his bid to unify Democrats behind his campaign against Trump. The former vice president is already the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, given that all his rivals have dropped out of the race, but he needed to win 89 percent of all delegates at stake on Tuesday to formally clinch the nomination.
If he doesn’t secure the needed delegates Tuesday, he has other opportunities to do so this month.
Biden was in Philadelphia on Tuesday morning to deliver remarks about the civil unrest that has erupted across the nation. He didn’t talk about the primary, instead focusing his attention on Trump, whom Biden blasted as “more interested in power than in principle.”
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is not actively campaigning, having suspended his operation and endorsed Biden, but his name will appear on the ballots. On the eve of Tuesday’s primaries, senior adviser Jeff Weaver encouraged progressives to vote for Sanders anyway.
“People who support Bernie Sanders and his agenda, who want to maximize the inf luence of progressives at the convention, should cast their vote for Bernie Sanders,” Weaver said, reminding voters that the Vermont senator is seeking leverage to shape the party’s platform.