Florida, Illinois and Arizona held primaries on Tuesday despite the coronavirus outbreak – and there were predictable glitches

Voters faced confusion, a shortage of poll workers, and shifting or closed polling stations on Tuesday in Florida, Illinois and Arizona – the three key states that still held their primaries despite concerns over coronavirus and pressures to delay the elections.

The votes came at a crucial point in the Democratic primary contests as Bernie Sanders vies to stay in the race against Joe Biden. But there was low in-person turnout in Florida and Illinois, though the overall count is not clear since both states saw significant numbers of voters cast votes by mail or vote early.

Chicago election officials reported mid-Tuesday afternoon that 126,499 votes had been cast in the city, less than half the number cast at the same point during the 2016 primary, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

There also were some glitches. Rebecca Gross, a 16-year-old student and election judge, said she showed up to set up her precinct on the city’s north side at 5am, but still hadn’t received the materials by late afternoon.

rebecca (@rebeccapearl21) Election Day so far: 5/8 election staff are elderly, we were provided with no cleaning supplies, we are missing an ENTIRE blue box (meaning anyone who comes to this precinct cannot vote), we are missing 2 election judges & nobody is answering our calls. pic.twitter.com/aPfmZ5McCt

Gross estimated she and other poll workers had to redirect around 200 voters to another site where they could vote. She said elections workers had been trying to contact the board of elections, but only got a full voice mailbox. “No people at our precinct are able to vote,” she said. The precinct also hadn’t received enough sanitary supplies to protect poll workers, who tend to skew older.

Elsewhere in the city, there were long lines to vote.

Hannah Meisel (@hannahmeisel) I feel like I’m just adding the the cacophony of anecdotes, but here’s a video of the line at the polling place at the police station at 850 W. Addison in the 44th ward. At least they’re waiting outside. pic.twitter.com/JGHslFQ6kd

Meanwhile, voters in Barrington, Illinois, north-west of Chicago, reported showing up to their polling place only to find it closed because no poll workers showed up.

The chaos sparked some political infighting Tuesday when Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Elections, told reporters the board had recommended Illinois postpone its contest or hold an entirely vote-by-mail election, but JB Pritzker, the state’s governor, rejected the idea. Pritzker’s chief of staff said it was a lie and the governor himself blasted the accusation.

In Florida, a state where around 20% of the population is over age 65, election officials have scrambled in recent days to move polling locations out of senior facilities and shore up poll workers. In Palm Beach County, polls opened late or not at all after hundreds of poll workers dropped out. Wendy Sartory Link, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections, tweeted that some polling places were being moved the day of the election.

Voters who went to the polls tweeted that things seemed to be mostly quiet on Tuesday, with some praising poll workers who had showed up to work even as public health officials are advising Americans against gathering in public.

Dr Stephenie McGucken (@StephenieEloise) I voted. I was no. 30. It will be 34 by the time I leave the parking lot. My poll workers are heroes, with hand sanitizer & gloves doing what they needed; each so appreciative for everyone who turned up. Florida asking its citizens to choose voting or public health is wrong. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2mTxmBdqKl

In Broward county, Florida, turnout was at about 17.5% late Tuesday afternoon, a little lower than expected, said Steve Vancore, a spokesman for the local supervisor of election. About 29% of voters participated in the county’s 2016 presidential preference primary.

Veronica Richards, a 26-year-old epidemiology PhD student at the University of Florida, said she voted early, but felt conflicted about encouraging people to go to the polls on Tuesday. She said she felt strongly that people should make their voice heard at the ballot box and wants Donald Trump out of office, but said she didn’t know if she could in good conscience advise people to vote if it meant risking their health.

“It’s really hard to balance encouraging people to vote and using their voice to possibly make big change and also encouraging people to go into these situations we’ve been telling them for weeks not to go into and putting people at risk,” she said.

In Arizona, Maricopa county, the state’s most populous county, closed 80 polling places in recent days amid concerns over poll worker shortages and a lack of sanitary supplies. The remaining 150 polling locations, however, were vote centers where anyone could cast a ballot. More than three quarters of active registered Democrats are also on a state list that allows them to automatically receive a mail-in ballot ahead of an election, said Murphy Hebert, a spokesperson for Arizona secretary of state Katie Hobbs.

As voters went to the polls on Tuesday, Biden’s campaign circulated a memo saying that early and absentee balloting would mitigate the effect of lower in-person voting.

But critics said the states should have delayed their primaries like Ohio, where Mike DeWine, the governor, took emergency action late Monday evening to cancel in-person voting at the polls there on Tuesday. Louisiana, Georgia, and Maryland have also delayed their primaries, which were scheduled in coming weeks.