Illinoisans turned out to vote in Tuesday’s primary despite the COVID-19 pandemic and they gave the most Democratic delegates to former Vice President Joe Biden.

Illinois has a total of 155 Democratic and 67 Republican delegates to offer and Illinois polls originally showed Sanders in the lead with 22% of the vote while Biden had 14%. Democratic candidates must secure 1,991 delegates to become the party’s nominee. 

(See more: Simon Poll: Sanders and Bloomberg lead primary polls, Pritzker’s popularity increases)

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Biden also won Florida and Arizona.

President Donald Trump won the Republican primary with 96% of the vote. 

Gov. JB Pritzker banned all gatherings of 50 people or more in the state of Illinois because of the COVID-19 outbreak  but made the decision to go ahead with the primary. 

“Democracy must continue,” Pritzker said. “We must continue to elect leaders even in less than ideal circumstances.” 

Pritzker gave his endorsement to Biden on the eve of the primary, Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin and Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot also endorsed him. 

Robert (88) and Beverly (83) Mohlenbrock, Carbondale residents who have been married 61 years, showed up to vote on Tuesday despite growing fears of the coronavirus.

Robert said he wasn’t worried about the virus, and Beverly said she was there because she wanted to get good people in office.

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“I always vote. Every time, virus or not,” Robert said. “We should all show up, it’s the democratic thing to do.”

Some Illinois residents thought the primary should have been postponed.

“We had to decide between following best health practices and voting. We are staying home,” Danielle Schultz, a Carbondale resident said. “ In addition to having vulnerable people in our household, we traveled to a place with community transmission last week. So [COVID-19] best practice and civic duty combine but we don’t get to vote today.”

Rachel Stuckel, a senior studying linguistics at SIU, said she took precautions and made sure to bring hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes to clean off the surface area and her pen before and after voting.

“Overall, I want my democratic candidate to win, so I felt obligated to help make that happen,” Stuckel said.

Below are more results from the Jackson county primary.

12th congressional district Democrat: Raymond Lenzi (52%) 98% of precincts reporting.

15th congressional district Democrat:  Erika Weaver (52%) all precincts reporting.

15th congressional district Republican: Mary Miller (57%) all precincts reporting.

U.S. Senator Republican:  Mark Curran (41%) 99% of precincts reporting.

Jackson County Coroner Democrat: Thomas Kupferer (52%) all precincts reporting.

Jackson County State’s Attorney Democrat: Mike Carr (64%) all precincts reporting.

Jackson County Circuit Clerk Democrat: Cindy Svanda  (54%) all precincts reporting.

News Editor Kallie Cox can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @KallieECox. To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

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