Officials are cutting and consolidating several polling stations in Arizona’s Maricopa County for the swiftly approaching March 17 primary due to poll workers canceling and a general lack of cleaning supplies, according to local officials.
While the Chinese coronavirus pandemic has led to the mass closure of schools, parks, and events, the four states voting in Tuesday’s primary elections — Florida, Arizona, Illinois, and Ohio — plan to charge on with voting, albeit with slight modifications, at least in the Grand Canyon State.
According to AZ Central, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is implementing key changes going into election day, including changes of location for certain polling stations in the state’s most populous county. Officials are closing 80 Maricopa County polling places “due to polling locations and poll workers canceling, and a lack of needed cleaning supplies to stock all locations,” according to the outlet.
The remaining 151 polling locations in the county will serve as “vote centers,” giving voters the freedom to vote at any location.
Supervisor Bill Gates assured that it will be “safe” to vote.
“Folks should come on Election Day if they want to vote,” Gates said, according to AZ Central. “It’s going to be safe and there will be many places to do that.”
Florida, Illinois, and Ohio have signaled that they will proceed with plans to hold their primary elections, despite growing concerns of the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials in the Sunshine State’s Broward County are stocking the polling locations with “extra supplies, including 4,000 rolls of paper towels, gloves and more than 400 bars of soap,” Click Orlando reports.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who recently announced the closure of restaurants and bars across the state, said that they have been “extra careful at all of our polling places.”
“Everybody is practicing good hygiene. And we’re making sure that it’s safe for people to come and vote. The schools are closed, so many people will be voting in schools. And there won’t be big crowds,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
Leaders in Ohio have also taken proactive measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus on election day, moving polling locations from senior living facilities and offering “curbside” voting as an alternative approach.
Two states, Louisiana and Georgia, have postponed their upcoming primary elections.