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(CNN) Former Vice President Joe Biden has won Alaska’s Democratic primary, the state party announced on Saturday.

He beat Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders , who dropped out of the race for president on Wednesday, 55.3% to 44.7%.

The Alaska Democratic Party moved the date of its contest from April 4 to April 10 and canceled all in-person voting in response to the coronavirus outbreak, opting to rely solely on vote-by-mail.

Sanders dropped out of the race two days before the deadline to return ballots, clearing the path for Biden’s nomination and campaign against President Donald Trump.

The state party sent more than 71,000 ballots to registered Democrats around the state and allowed voters the option to download one as well. Using ranked-choice voting, participants could select up to five choices for the Democratic nomination. More than 19,000 ballots were returned to the state party’s office in Anchorage by Friday’s deadline.

“Our goal in converting our system from the caucuses of past presidential elections to a party-run primary was to enfranchise as many Alaska Democrats as possible, particularly in rural communities with limited or no access to caucus locations,” Alaska state party chairwoman Casey Steinau said in a statement announcing the results. “Our voter turnout by mail is just about twice what our caucus turnout was in 2016 which shows that vote by mail works. We are very pleased with the implementation and success of the process, and hope we can serve as an example of how this can be done right, and done across the nation.”

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