Amid the coronavirus pandemic and with some cities nationwide under curfews in the wake of protests following the death of George Floyd, eight states and the District…
Amid the coronavirus pandemic and with some cities nationwide under curfews in the wake of protests following the death of George Floyd, eight states and the District of Columbia are holding primaries on Tuesday.
In what’s being dubbed a second Super Tuesday, three states — Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota — as well as Washington, D. C., are holding regularly scheduled contests.
They’re being joined by four states — Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — that postponed their primaries earlier this year after the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the nation. Nearly all states holding primaries scheduled for late March, April and May — worried about health concerns over in-person voting — delayed their contests or transformed them into nearly entirely balloting by mail.
Iowa, which kicks off the presidential nominating calendar with its caucuses, is also holding a primary for down-ballot races.
Even though President Trump has repeatedly railed against moves by states to expand voting by mail amid the pandemic, many of them are doing just that. Pennsylvania, Indiana and Maryland have increased the use of mail-in ballots to avoid any overflows of people gathering in close quarters at polling stations during Tuesday’s contests. And Montana’s secretary of state worked with each of the state’s counties to provide for an election nearly entirely by mail.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday extended by a week the deadline for voters in six counties for absentee or mail-in ballots.
The June 2 primaries may be a preview or an appetizer of November’s general election — since they’re the first widespread test of whether the U. S. Postal Service and local election officials can accurately and quickly count the surge in mailed-in ballots. And they’re also a test of whether voting in multiple states — including many urban areas — will be disrupted by coronavirus health concerns.
