Amid growing restrictions over the global coronavirus outbreak, Joe Biden racked up primary wins over Bernie Sanders in Florida and Illinois on Tuesday, making his delegate lead for the Democratic presidential nomination all but insurmountable before the party’s scheduled convention in July.As polls closed at 8 p.m. ET in Florida, Biden was declared the winner by the Associated Press. Ahead by nearly 40 points with 77 percent of the votes counted in a state that awards 219 delegates proportionally, Biden was sure to pad his overall delegate lead over Sanders.Biden was declared the winner in Illinois, a state that awards 101 delegates, thirty minutes later.Biden was also expected to win handily in Arizona, where polls close at 11 p.m. ET, and he leads in polls by double-digits.As Biden continued his march toward the Democratic nomination, Donald Trump won enough delegates in the Illinois Republican primary to secure the GOP presidential nomination, the AP projected.Rather than give a speech about the election results, Sanders held a livestream on the coronavirus outbreak before polls in Florida and Illinois had closed. He detailed proposals — including mobilizing the U.S. Army and National Guard to construct makeshift hospitals and providing funds for workers who lose their employment — for what he said would need to be a massive government effort to counter the pandemic and its economic fallout. “This will require an unprecedented amount of money, and my own guess is that we’ll be spending at least $2 trillion in funding to prevent deaths, job losses and to avoid an economic catastrophe,” Sanders said.Sanders said he would introduce his suggestions to Democratic leadership in the coming days and directed his viewers to read about them further at his website. Not once during his remarks did Sanders mention Tuesday’s primaries or the state of the Democratic presidential race.“We can address this crisis and we can minimize the pain,” Sanders said.Thanks to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, Ohio postponed its elections until June 2, and cast a shadow of uncertainty over the status of future in-person primary voting. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who has taken the lead on school closures and social distancing measures, announced Monday that he was recommending that Ohio delay in-person voting in the primary.“We cannot conduct this election tomorrow,” DeWine announced Monday.As of Tuesday morning, Ohio had reported 67 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the formal name of the coronavirus. Florida had reported 160 cases of COVID-19 as of Tuesday, and four deaths. Illinois had tallied 105 cases and Arizona had reported another 18. The rapid rise in the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. has mirrored the curve witnessed in Italy, where more than 27,980 cases have been confirmed and 2,158 people have died from COVID-19.Hours before residents in Illinois, Florida and Arizona headed to the polls despite guidance form the CDC to avoid gatherings of 10 people or more, Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said he was leaving the decision on whether to postpone elections up to the state governors.“Republican and Democratic governors have made that judgement that they can do that. I don’t think it’s for me to second-guess those judgements,” Perez said in an interview with MSNBC.But two DNC co-chairs sent a memo last week warning that states faced the prospect of penalties for pushing back primaries beyond June 9.“If a state violates the rule on timing, or any other rule, they could be subject to penalties as prescribed in Rule 21, including at least a 50% reduction in delegates, which will need to be reviewed by the RBC [Rules and Bylaws Committee],” the memo, which was obtained by The Guardian, stated.So far, Louisiana is the only state that may run afoul of the DNC, having postponed its April 4 primary until June 20. Georgia, which was originally scheduled to hold its primary on March 24, has suspended its elections until May 19.While Perez urged voters to “stay safe” Tuesday, he did not discourage them from showing up at polling places. At the same time, however, he said the coronavirus outbreak showed that the nation needed to figure out ways to make sure citizens could cast their votes without heading to polling places.This crisis is a stark reminder of the need to expand early voting, vote by mail, and no-excuse absentee voting. We ought to be making it easier for folks to vote — especially in situations like this — not harder.— Tom Perez (@TomPerez) March 17, 2020Puerto Rico is scheduled to hold the next Democratic primary on March 29. On April 4, Hawaii, Alaska and Wyoming are scheduled to have their primaries._____Read more from Yahoo News:
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