Coronavirus Adds Wrinkle To Presidential Primary

If ever there was a time voters might consider switching to vote-by-mail, it might be now, in the midst of the coronavirus disruption.

But Saturday was the last day for voters to make that switch ahead of next Tuesday's Florida presidential preference primary, and Volusia County Elections Supervisor Lisa Lewis said she hasn't seen a surge of new vote-by-mail requests.

Lewis said Tuesday her office is taking precautions for the election, supplying hand sanitizers and cleaning supplies to the list of items being sent to polling places. Paper towels and spray bottles containing 99% pure alcohol will also be sent, and election workers will wipe down check-in screens, voting booths, security sleeves and pens. Also, voters will be allowed to bring their own blue or black pen to vote, and voting booths will be placed further apart.

"We don't want voters to be afraid to go out to vote. We want both the voters and election workers to feel safe," Lewis said.

[READ MORE: ELECTION SUPERVISOR LISA LEWIS: Elections are carefully designed for security]

Another concern is pollworkers. Lewis learned on Tuesday that five of about 600 pollworkers had informed her they will not work the election because of coronavirus concerns. Another is whether any polling sites will decline to host the election.

"One questioned me about it. We assured them with what we will be doing, taking preventative measures," Lewis said, adding that the site was one that hosts a lot of senior activities. "That is a worry."

Mail ballots have been leading the way in turnout thus far, with Early Voting proving to be a less popular choice.

"It's going kind of slow," said Volusia Democratic Party Chair Jewel Dickson, who expressed concern about overall turnout considering Volusia has had two positive presumptive coronavirus cases confirmed thus far.

"I think it will affect the vote," she said. "I think it will help both parties enlist more vote-by-mail for the August primary."

Both parties have been urging more voters to request mail ballots. Dickson said Democratic return rate for mail ballots in the 2018 election was 86% -- far surpassing the percentage of voters who didn't participate at the polls.

Despite having a more contested race, Democrats have shown less enthusiasm than Republicans thus far in Volusia.

"I think they're holding their ballots," Dickson said.

[READ MORE: Volusia, Flagler GOP buck Florida voter registration trend]

If they were waiting to see how Super Tuesday shook out, Democrats saw their field drastically reduced. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar dropped out and endorsed Joe Biden, whose victories then led to the exits of Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren.

Democrats are left with two main contenders representing different wings of the party -- Biden and Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, local enthusiasm for President Donald Trump has seemingly led to Republicans' stronger turnout. Although he has three challengers on the Florida ballot, William Weld; Joe Walsh, who's no longer campaigning; and Rocky DeLaFuente, a perennial candidate who's not on every state's ballot.

All but 3% of Republican Volusia ballots cast through Monday were by mail.

Democrats led in Early Voting polling, with 2,569 ballots cast through Monday. Republicans had just 818.

In Flagler County, 10,999 total ballots had been cast through Tuesday afternoon, representing 16.7% of the total number of voters. Republicans by a 56-44 margin had returned primary ballots.

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