March 17, 2020 - Primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio*

OVERVIEW
The presidential primary was open only to Democrats.  In Sept. 2019 Arizona Republicans opted not to hold a presidential primary. 

Early voting started Feb. 19, 2020.  To give a sense of how early voting went, by March 4 Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes reported his office had processed nearly 150,000 returned ballots.  Thus tens of thousands of ballots were cast for candidates who were no longer active by primary day March 17.  [Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, is most populous county and accounted for 58.3% of eligible voters in the primary].

As the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic became clear, election officials scrambled to "protect voters’ health while maintaining their access to the ballot."  Secretary of State Katie Hobbs encouraged voters to request a ballot by mail (deadline was March 6).  In Maricopa County, there was a bit of drama when Recorder Andrian Fontes on March 13 unilaterally and without authority attempted to send out ballots to eligible voters who had not yet voted.  A court blocked the mailings.  More successfully Maricopa County officials redesigned their voting system in a matter of days, going from 229 polling locations to 148 vote centers.  Maricopa County also ran seven emergency vote centers on March 14 and 16.  Fontes reported that, “Democratic turnout was higher this year than it was for the 2016 Presidential Preference Election, and nearly 90 percent of them voted by mail or dropped off ballots.” [press releases]

Biden carried 13 of 15 counties (all except Coconino and Yuma) and 7 of the 9 congressional districts.  Sanders prevailed in CD3 (Southwestern part of the state along the U.S.-Mexico border including part of Tucson, represented by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D)) and CD7 (inner Phoenix, represented by Rep. Ruben Gallego (D)).  Results for Bloomberg, who had the most extensive organization on the ground in Arizona, were not reported as he had formally withdrawn.  Warren also had a significant organization here.

Total eligible registration (Dem.): 1,256,343.  Total ballots cast: 613,355.  Turnout 48.82%.

See also:
Dillon Rosenblatt.  "Court stops County Recorder from sending ballots to all voters for Tuesday election."  Arizona Capitol Times, March 13, 2020.

And note:
Phoenix was scheduled to be the site of the eleventh presidential debate, on Sunday, March 15, but on March 12 the DNC announced it was moving it to Washington, DC due to coronavirus.

Delegate Selection

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FLORIDA PRIMARY (219 pledged delegates)

Friday, March 13, 2020

Statement From Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio Chief Elections Officials

PHOENIX – The following statement is attributable to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (AZ), Secretary of State Laurel Lee (FL), Elections Board Chairman Charles Scholz (IL) and Secretary of State Frank LaRose (OH): 

As each of our four states prepare for voters to head to the polls on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, we are working closely with our state health officials to ensure that our poll workers and voters can be confident that voting is safe.

Unlike concerts, sporting events or other mass gatherings where large groups of people travel long distances to congregate in a confined space for an extended period of time, polling locations see people from a nearby community coming into and out of the building for a short duration.

Further, guidance from voting machine manufacturers on how best to sanitize machines, guidance from CDC on best practices for hand washing, and guidance from our respective state health officials is being provided to every polling location.

Americans have participated in elections during challenging times in the past, and based on the best information we have from public health officials, we are confident that voters in our states can safely and securely cast their ballots in this election, and that otherwise healthy poll workers can and should carry out their patriotic duties on Tuesday.