Biden shocks on Super Tuesday

Pioneer Staff

Super Tuesday is the second most important day in any election year. It is the first time we as a nation get to see where presidential candidates stack up against their competition. In 2020, the results have unexpectedly shifted in Biden’s favor.
Some states that were once heavily supporting Bernie Sanders have seen his support dip by as much as 10 percent in this election year.
According to the Washington Post, Sanders saw his support in Vermont fall from 85 percent in 2016, to just over 50 percent this year. In Colorado, Sanders’ support has fallen from 60 percent to 40 percent in the last two state caucuses.
At Hayward City Hall, one of Downtown Hayward’s main polling locations, having a constant flow of visitors isn’t new to the staff. City Hall is also prepared for any issues they could have encountered, including voting machine hacking.
“We are getting about 40 voters every hour, we count the mail-ins as a voter as well,” Alex Cully, a staffer for Hayward City Hall, said in an interview. “The touch screen machines used to count the votes aren’t connected to the internet to avoid hacking.”
With the recent rise of American Coronavirus cases, the safety of highly populated areas is in question, areas such as voting locations. Thankfully, measures have been made.
“Surprisingly, no one has expressed concerns for the virus today,” Cully continued. “However, we are prepared in case. We have hand sanitizer and the staff is making sure to wash their hands after interactions.”
Anecdotally, most voters submitting their votes decided to do so by mail-ins. Voters aimed to be in and out as possible, something that may reflect the upcoming election. “I believe it’s mostly like 75 percent of people they are filling something out and the other 25 percent are just ready to drop it off and leave,” volunteer Jessica Rojo said.
The demographic of each polling location changes with the time of day.
“Age wise, I believe it is mostly like 50 and older, which I believe is due to school being in session right now. So then, maybe as the day progresses, it’s gonna be younger kids, like 18 [or] 20, once they get out of school they can come here,” Rojo continued. “In might be a lot of people coming through during the daytime because in this area there’s a lot more like older people like they don’t really have younger family members so then possibly right now is gonna be the peak and then as the day goes on it’s gonna be like younger people but since there’s not that many younger people in this area it might be not that many people.”
A misconception with Super Tuesday is that votes don’t matter, because it is not for the general election. The truth is, the primary voting stages give us a preview of who we will be voting for this coming November. The primaries are just one way that the people of California can voice their opinions on who will lead us into the future.