Election Day: it's off: UPDATES

UPDATE:  It’s off!   (See here.)

As of 11:25pm, the election is OFF.  Here’s Ed Driscoll at Instapundit:

NOW WHAT? Judge Denies Ohio Gov’s Request to Delay Primary, But Poll Workers Say They Won’t Be Ready.

UPDATE: “Minutes ago Gov. Mike DeWine defied a judge’s earlier ruling that the primary must go on tomorrow. He announced on Twitter that his director of Public Health, Amy Acton, will order the polls closed tomorrow due to a ‘health emergency.'”

Is that it? Ohio Christian Alliance reported earlier this evening:

With the unprecedented measures that have been implemented by federal and state government agencies, tomorrow's election has been postponed. More information will be available on the Secretary of State's website and from the Governor's office.

As of 10 pm Monday night, I have not been able to confirm that report via the Board of Elections or the Secretary of State website.

Ohio Value Voters reported that the March 17 election is ON as scheduled.

Is it on or off?  ON (if pollworkers show up)?  This latest from Paula Bolyard at PJ Media who reports that the election is proceeding as scheduled on March 17:

CHAOS: Judge Denies Ohio Gov's Request to Delay Primary—

AFTER Poll Workers Told Not to Set Up Polling Locations

Update 9:45 p.m.: Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican, sent out a memo to members asking them to inform their constituents that the election will go on as planned Tuesday. "To my knowledge, the court is closed until 8:30 AM tomorrow and polls open prior to that," he wrote. "You should instruct your constituents that the Election is scheduled to occur March 17 as set by Ohio Law."

Here's more about what we know about Ohio's primary elections, scheduled for today, March 17 (reprinted from this blog, published yesterday):

Headline from cleveland.com:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

People who want the election postponed may appeal. It’s still being decided whether an appeal is possible.

According to my conversation with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, none of this confusion has been clarified; the BoE spokesperson recommended checking the website for the Ohio Secretary of State for any updates;  click here. 

Yesterday's blog with more details of all this confusion is here. 

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Ohio Primary Election postponed? Updates

image credit: kpcw.org.

UPDATE 10pm: Ohio Christian Alliance is reporting:

With the unprecedented measures that have been implemented by federal and state government agencies, tomorrow's election has been postponed. More information will be available on the Secretary of State's website and from the Governor's office.

As of 10 pm Monday night, I have not been able to confirm that report via the Board of Elections or the Secretary of State website.

Earlier updates ---

UPDATE 7:53pm:  Headline fromcleveland.com:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

People who want the election postponed may appeal. It’s still being decided whether an appeal is possible.

So as of 7:53pm Monday, March 16, it is still unclear as to whether the polls will or will not be open on Tuesday. 

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UPDATE:  Crawl on Fox 8 News Cleveland at 4:12pm:

Voting in Ohio To Be Extended to June 2

UPDATE: The information on the Ohio Secretary of State Website suggests polls will NOT be open tomorrow:

Based On New Public Health Guidance, Larose Recommends Suspension Of In-Person Voting On March 17, Moving Election Day To June 2

And here's how this blog originally started:

Headline from cleveland.com:

Gov. Mike DeWine wants to postpone Ohio’s Tuesday primary election till June 2 due to coronavirus.

Ohio becomes the third state, after Louisiana and Georgia to cancel its primary.

The wording is odd (“wants to postpone” vs “to cancel”).  Then:

Less than 24 hours before it was to have taken place, Ohio officials are seeking to delay the state’s presidential primary election until June 2, Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday.
. . .

Between now and June 2, mail-in voting would continue, if the judge approves the move.

The Hill is reporting:

Ohio governor calls for delaying Tuesday's primary until June

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Monday he would back a lawsuit aiming to delay the state's presidential primary until June because of the growing threat of the coronavirus that has already infected thousands of people around the country.

(One assumes that this decision was put off until the last minute because Gov. DeWine was so busy closing down Ohio restaurants, bars, theaters, sports events, parades, etc.)

UPDATE 4:20: According to my conversation with the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, none of the confusion has been clarified; the BoE spokesperson recommended checking the website for the Ohio Secretary of State for any updates;  click here.

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CNN Democratic Debate: drunk-blogging link

Democrat debate: Biden vs Sanders

Tonight, Sunday, March 15, 2020

8:00 PM on CNN 

CNN and Univision host former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders from Washington, D.C.; moderated by Ilia Calderon.

It’s either a must-see or a must-miss.  If you can’t stand the idea of watching CNN and the debate between two “grumpy old white men,” then here is the link to Stephen Green (Mr. Vodkapundit) doing his live drunk-blog coverage.  Note: Vodkapundit's drunk blog automatically updates, so there is no need to refresh.

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Ohio polls and Joe Biden’s town hall trainwreck

Cartoon credit: Times Free Press

Hannah Bleau at Breitbart reports:

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is experiencing a double-digit lead in Ohio just days before the state’s March 17 primary, an Emerson College/Nexstar Poll released on Friday showed.

The survey, taken March 11-12, 2020, among 464 “very” likely Democrat primary voters, showed Biden taking a comfortable lead in the Buckeye State, with 57 percent support to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 35 percent support — a 22 point advantage.

Note the dates of the survey: March 11-12.  How will polling look after Biden’s virtual town hall performance yesterday is factored in. John Nolte at Breitbart reports:

Joe Biden Forgets Year,

Meanders Off Frame in Disastrous Livestream

Grandpa Joe Biden wants to run the country and save us from coronavirus when he can’t even run a livestream and has no idea what year it is.

On Friday, Grandpa Joe held what his campaign billed as a “virtual town hall” in Illinois. In my colleague Kyle Olson’s must-read reporting on the event, you will discover the whole thing was a fiasco, like something out of a sitcom. Guests appeared and then disappeared. The sound was garbled. People were introduced, followed by an awkward pause when they didn’t appear. Babies cried…

“Biden seemed to be reading from a teleprompter, but the broadcast suffered from severe tech issues, as Biden’s words were caught in a feedback loop, muddying the whole presentation and making the candidate nearly indecipherable,” Olson reported.

After starting two hours late, the fiasco lasted about 45 minutes. . . .

Mr. Nolte  cites a tweet by “Jordan:”

In a bizarre, meandering livestream put on by Joe Biden's campaign today, he forgets what year it is and when, if he doesn't lose, he would be in office.

At another point, he seemingly forgets he's on a live stream and walks out of frame. The feed cuts away to a logo instead.

Mr. Nolte’s full report is here, and it’s scary to think Mr. Biden is the front-runner for the Democrat party's presidential nominee.   The full video of the town hall is linked at Nolte’s report.

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Coronavirus and the CDC

Glenn Reynolds (Mr. Instapundit) had this blurb with link:

WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE THE CDC SUCKS. Sick People Across the U.S. Say They Are Being Denied the Coronavirus Test. It sucked with swine flu, it sucked with Ebola, and it’s sucking now.

The link is to a New York Times article, which is behind a paywall. So for a bit of background, you can go instead to Michelle Malkin’s fearless take on the history of the CDC.  A sampling:

I think I’m where most sane people are on the coronavirus outbreak:

—Concerned but not panicked.

—Calm but not apathetic.

—Taking reasonable precautions but remaining skeptical of what all the purportedly “best experts” here in the United States are telling us about every aspect of their belated crisis management and response (especially on their pimping of vaccine development to prevent the disease).

Here are some plain, non-hysterical facts: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is a bloated federal government agency with a long history of incompetence, fraud, secrecy, mission creep and shady alliances with both social justice causes on the left and private corporations on the big business right. The “deep state” of entrenched bureaucrats embedded in the Beltway bowels is alive and thriving at the CDC. The un-elected elites who’ve occupied top offices at the public health-industrial complex are hostile to public scrutiny while clamoring for ever-ballooning budgets. Their recommendations have often been detrimental to citizens’ well-being and freedom.

Lots more here.

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Coronavirus update from Cleveland Clinic

From a Facebook friend: 

Statement from Cleveland Clinic onTesting for COVID-19 – March 12 2020, Updated at 5:00 PM:

We want to clarify misinformation that has been trending on social media related to Cleveland Clinic testing for COVID-19. Cleveland Clinic has not developed a new test for COVID-19. We have purchased the necessary CDC components and validated the test in our own lab. This means we can now conduct on-site testing for the virus, allowing us to test patients and receive the results more rapidly – in most cases, within one day. We expect other hospitals and academic medical centers across the country will also have this capability.

More here.

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St. Patrick’s Day: no parade, just voting

photo credit: lagunabeat.com

Cleveland.com reports that the traditional Cleveland downtown St. Patrick’s Day parade is cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus.  But polling places will be open.  The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has posted all polling locations here;  there is another page, here, that lists locations recently changed or added.

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