What Went Down In Michigan, Washington And Other Democratic Primaries

Going back to Sarah’s question about the impact of rally cancellations — Sanders tends to have big rallies on college campuses. And while he doesn’t really seem to be delivering on his promise of high youth turnout this year, I have to believe those rallies are helpful for getting students excited about voting, and also giving them information about how they can vote. At Sanders’s rally at the University of Michigan on Sunday, one of the speakers went into the mechanics of how to register and vote in pretty specific detail.

Polls are closing soon in some states, including North Dakota and it’s tad unusual because it is hosting the first party-run primary of the year. Compared with a state-run primary, the voting hours will be shorter (running from just noon to 8 p.m. Eastern Time), and there are only 14 polling places statewide. No matter where they live in the state, people can vote at any polling place; they also had the option to vote by mail. Although North Dakota is calling its election the “firehouse caucuses,” they’re not really caucuses in that voters don’t need to stick around to realign after casting their ballots.

Our final forecast in North Dakota gives Biden a 14 in 15 (93 percent) chance of winning, while Sanders has just a 1 in 15 (7 percent) chance. We’re forecasting Biden to get 57 percent of the statewide vote, on average, and Sanders to get 33 percent. Because North Dakota has only one congressional district, the statewide results will decide the allocation of all 14 of the state’s pledged delegates.

For a quick overview of what’s at stake in today’s primaries, particularly for Sanders, Nathaniel Rakich recorded this earlier today: