The state of Ohio has postponed its presidential primary scheduled for Tuesday until June amid concerns of the spreading coronavirus.
Ohio is one of four states slated to hold primary elections this week. Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden are the two contenders left vying for the Democratic nomination.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said the state has filed a lawsuit to postpone the election and that it would be up to a judge to decide.
“We cannot tell people to stay inside, but also tell them to go out and vote,” DeWine, a Republican, tweeted out Monday. There are 50 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state, he said.
The decision was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court early Tuesday after a roller coaster 24 hours.
The Sanders campaign did not respond to a request for comment about the Ohio primary delay.
On Monday, Ohio was the only state holding a primary this week that had canceled elections over the virus. Voters in Illinois, Arizona and Florida will still be allowed to head to the polls Tuesday.
After the news broke about Ohio, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker assured the public that Illinois would hold its primary on Tuesday.
“Democracy needs to go on,” he said.
However, Louisaiana, which had a primary scheduled for April 4, and Georgia which had a primary scheduled for March 24, have delayed their elections until June and May respectively, over coronavirus concerns.
Polling shows that Sanders, who has trailed Biden and lost his primary front-runner status in the last few weeks, continues to lag behind the former vice president in all of the states that will head to the polls tomorrow.
According to an NBC/Marist poll released on Monday, 58% of voters in Ohio favored Biden while 35% supported Sanders. The same poll found that in Arizona, Biden was at 53% and Sanders was at 36%.
Ohio isn’t the only state that has considered election restrictions in response to the coronavirus.
In an interview last week, Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos said he was proposing legislation that would remove the requirement for office seekers to gather petitions with signatures. He said the move could help prevent the spread of the virus.
He said he was also hoping lawmakers would give voters the ability to avoid casting ballots at physical polling places, in the event that the virus continues to spread and presents a risk through the end of the year.
This could involve expanding the public’s opportunity to mail in ballots, he said.
