Biden Sweeps Arizona, Florida, Illinois Primaries

Former Vice President Joe Biden easily bested Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Democratic presidential primaries in Arizona, Florida and Illinois on Tuesday, even as coronavirus concerns have led a number of states to postpone their upcoming election contests.

All three states reported lighter than usual in-person voting but robust turnout during early and mail voting. Older people continued to dominate primary voting, according to polls taken in the days leading up to Tuesday's contests. Traditional in-person exit polling was not done because of coronavirus concerns. In Arizona, 59 percent of the votes were projected to be cast by people 50-plus; that age group was projected to represent 67 percent of ballots cast in Florida and 54 percent in Illinois, according to early polls.

Tuesday's primaries also provided enough delegates for President Donald Trump to clinch the Republican nomination for president, something that was never in doubt. The president had only token opposition and, after winning Florida and Illinois primaries, he has more than the 1,276 delegates he needs to secure the GOP nomination, according to the Associated Press.

Several primaries are still scheduled for March and April, but election officials in some states have said they are considering whether to postpone them. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez has called on states to move to voting by mail or other methods that would not disenfranchise voters while protecting their health.

"As our country deals with the uncertainty of COVID-19, it is critical that states provide clarity and not confusion, which could lead to disenfranchising voters,” Perez said in a statement. “In order to ensure the voices of voters are heard, the DNC is urging the remaining primary states to use a variety of other critical mechanisms that will make voting easier and safer for voters and election officials alike."

Perez said the easiest alternative would be for states to proactively mail ballots to all voters. “Additional tools include no-excuse absentee voting, whereby a voter can either drop a ballot off at convenient locations or drop it in the mail,” Perez explained, “and, where in-person voting can still take place under public health guidelines, states should expand days and hours of early voting to reduce lines."

Here are the primaries and one caucus that have been postponed so far:

• Ohio: March 17 primary was moved to June 2.
• Georgia: March 24 primary was moved to May 19.
• Puerto Rico: March 29 primary was moved to April 26.
• Louisiana: April 4 primary was moved to June 20.
• Wyoming: April 4 in-person caucus was canceled. March 20 is the deadline to seek a mail-in ballot.
• Maryland: April 28 primary was moved to June 2.
• Kentucky: May 19 primary was moved to June 23.