by: Nandini Krishnan
Public healthcare systems are being strained worldwide, as economic systems land themselves in turmoil. At a point in time when reality has blended together with Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion in a nightmarish pandemic, standing in a line to cast a vote in primaries is a nightmarish task. With its rallies, caucuses and large group gatherings, election season feels like the anti-social distancing.
So far, 13 states have cancelled their primaries, postponing them for the visible future. Other states, like Wisconsin, insist on going ahead with their primaries, despite warnings about public safety. As cases rise, so do questions about the increasingly intimidating prospect of elections.
What’s going to happen to the primaries?
Since there is no real timeline to work with here, states are looking at a variety of options to try and continue holding their primaries. Many hope that they will be able to hold them in June, in order to beat the DNC deadline of June 9th. While some states like Louisiana and Kentucky are pushing dates beyond this deadline, they might lose half of their delegates. Other states, like Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming have moved to a mail based voting system, with mail-in ballots being widely promoted in many other states. States that held their primaries on March 17th, were poorly organised, particularly Illinois, with an extremely low turnout, while others had extremely high turnouts that risked the spread of COVID-19. While everything is still a little bit messy, states and the DNC are working on contingency plans to try and find the best possible solutions to continue holding primaries.
Can elections be cancelled?
Nope. The US constitution clearly states that “the terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January.” This means that the November elections must continue. A possibility is that certain states may be excluded if they are on “shelter in place” orders, but other than that it is very clear that the November elections must continue no matter what.
How is this changing campaigning?
While traditionally campaigning has involved a lot of in person contact in the form of community outreach, both Biden and Sanders have been working from their individual hometowns. Trump has also halted his campaigning activity and has been making addresses from the oval office. Furthermore, the coronavirus has completely shifted the tone of the elections, with candidates almost exclusively focusing on the issue on hand and describing possible policies and changes they would make to reduce its impact. However, as of now, Biden has such a large lead in the primary count that Sander’s chances are looking extremely dismal. But with all the ongoing changes it's very hard to be certain about what the future holds.
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