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Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio will still hold their primaries on Tuesday

Posted at 12:15 PM, Mar 13, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-13 14:15:36-04

All states holding presidential primaries next Tuesday say voting will take place as scheduled, despite the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In a joint statement, Secretaries of State from Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Ohio said Friday that their primaries will still take place on Tuesday.

"Unlike concerts, sporting events or other mass gatherings where large groups of people travel long distances to congregate in a confined space for an extended period of time, polling locations see people from a nearby community coming into and out of the building for a short duration," the statement read.

The statement also said that officials would follow guidance from voting machine manufacturers and the CDC on how best to sanitize equipment.

The announcement comes the same day that Louisiana became the first state to delay its primary due to the pandemic. That vote was delayed more than two months, moving from April 4 to June 20.

Florida, Illinois and Ohio will all hold both Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday. Arizona will only hold its Democratic primary, as it has already declared President Donald Trump the winner in the Republican primary.