Tell Gov. Pritzker’s Office to Postpone Election Day Tuesday, March 17, 2020 to Maintain Social Distancing for Coronavirus Mitigation

Louisiana became the first state on Friday, March 13, 2020 to postpone an election due to the coronavirus outbreak. Louisiana is pushing back their April 4, 2020 primary until June 20, 2020 — only 18 days after the regularly scheduled primaries for the District of Columbia, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. Also, Wyoming Democrats suspended their in-person caucuses.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Friday, March 13, 2020 that time has “long since past the moment when we thought we could count on the federal government to lead in the face of this unprecedented situation.”

Now is the time that the people of Illinois should be able to count on Gov. J.B. Pritzker to take leadership and postpone our regularly-scheduled Election Day Tuesday, March 17, 2020. Social distancing is much more important in flattening the curve (preventing a number of infections) than coronavirus testing. Social distancing is expected to let a greater percentage of those nasty viruses neutralize in the wind and on cold hard surfaces, instead of injecting their dirty spike protein into our warm, moist nasal passages, or deep in our lower lungs.

Have you ever been in a polling place that wasn’t crowded — even at 7:00 p.m. when the polling place is about to close? Besides, the polling place booths aren’t more than three feet apart, as recommended to keep a safe distance (by the way, paramedics are being instructed to stay six feet away prior to donning Personal Protective Equipment). Volunteers assigned to keep people apart in lines, or to clean surfaces would be unduly overburdened with responsibility. Panic at polling places is even possible. Holding a primary Election Day just doesn’t make sense, and doesn’t coincide with the recommendations to maintain social distancing.

Gov. Pritzker you are doing an excellent job, but if social distancing is so important, why are you willing to let us torture ourselves with the decision to bravely commit to our civic duty to vote (with possible coronavirus exposure); or stay home from the polls and avoid the risk of unwillingly allowing our host cells in our noses to marry the coronavirus genome with ribosomes? Next — after viral replication — there is risk of a range of illness responses that are mysteriously mild to fatal, and a likely spawning of a coronavirus progeny that will move on to infect a great number of people in the Illinois population. To top it off, the timing of this risk is at the doorstep of the dangerous spike you are attempting to flatten to a mild curve … in order to prevent overloading the health care system.

The risk to any individual isn’t any less in a crowded polling place than a crowded space at Wrigley Field. Perhaps the fixation on large numbers is the cause of such poor decision-making in this instance. Perhaps you’re thinking there are thousands that could be infected at Wrigley Field, and only one-hundred or two-hundred at a polling place. But multiply the smaller groups at each polling place times the number of polling places across Illinois, and you have got yourself a significant exposure risk — maybe even greater than the risk to the crowd sitting outside at Wrigley Field. Furthermore, allowing the risk to one is just as bad as allowing the risk to many. Be a leader, don’t wait for other states to delay election. Be a leader of safety for Illinois. Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio have state primary events on Tuesday, March 17, 2020.

With students off of school, why hold the election when it is harder for parents of young children to make it to the polling places. Additionally, why risk the likelihood of lawsuits that could be filed claiming that Election Day should not have been held during a Disaster Proclamation.

There should be no picking and choosing, and no capriciousness while applying rules in a Disaster Proclamation.

Contact the Governor:

Chicago
Office of the Governor
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph, 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: 312-814-2121

Springfield
Office of the Governor
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: 217-782-6830 or 217-782-6831

State of Illinois | Gov. J.B. Pritzker Contact Page

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