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TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 • SANTA ROSA, CALIFORNIA • PRESSDEMOCRAT.COM

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INSIDE

SUPER TUESDAY

Many delay casting votes

The majority of Sonoma County voters are waiting until the last minute to cast ballots in California’s earliest primary in 16 years, seeking to sway the closely-watched outcome of the Democratic presidential prima-ry and determine who will face off against President Donald Trump.

More than 80% of Sonoma County voters cast their bal-lots by mail, but as of Monday, just 31% of those voters had re-turned a ballot, leaving hopes for high turnout dependent upon a late surge in mail ballots or strong in-person voting from the 18% of voters who go to poll-ing places.

California is one of 14 states voting on Super Tuesday, with the largest share of delegates to date up for grabs in the pres-idential race among Democrats. California accounts for 12% of the required tally to secure the nomination, and the advanced March 3 election is meant to hand the state more influence over who emerges from the shrinking field.

Sonoma County election offi-cials have anticipated turnout of 65% to 70%, about on par with 2016. But the local emergency declared Monday over the coro-navirus could hamper some of that participation.

Deva Proto, the county’s reg-istrar of voters, clarified that lo-cal polling places aren’t exactly packed with people, and there-fore don’t represent a huge coro-navirus risk. And polling places will be outfitted with hand sani-tizer as a precaution, she said

Voters’ tendency to hold onto mail ballots, especially this year amid a hotly contested Demo-cratic primary, is likely a main factor in the low turnout to date, said Sonoma State University political science professor David McCuan.

Three candidates — former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and California billionaire and climate activ-ist Tom Steyer — dropped out in the past two days. Buttigieg and Klobuchar on Monday en-dorsed former Vice President Joe Biden.

“The big thing is that we have a very early primary in a state with late developments affect-ing the vote,” McCuan said.

Sonoma County has sent only 31% of mailed ballots before primaryBy TYLER SILVYTHE PRESS DEMOCRAT

TURN TO VOTERS » PAGE A4

CHRISTOPHER CHUNG / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Dr. Celeste Philip, public health officer for Sonoma County, speaks about the presence of the novel coronavirus in Sonoma County during a Monday news conference in Santa Rosa. Standing in the background are Department of Health Services Director Barbie Robinson, from left, and Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Susan Gorin.

County confirms first resident with COVID-19

SANTA ROSA » PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY

A Sonoma County resi-dent who recently re-turned from a cruise

to Mexico has been diagnosed with coronavirus — the first person living here to contract the illness that’s spread from

China to at least another 68 countries — prompting county health officials Mon-day to declare a local public health emer-gency that in-

tensifies the fight against pos-sible community transmission of the deadly virus.

The resident becomes the second confirmed patient being treated in a county hospital for the infection. Early last week,

a person was transferred to a local hospital from Travis Air Force Base in Solano County. That person had been quar-antined at the base for a short time, after returning from the virus-stricken Diamond Prin-cess cruise ship in Japan. Six passengers from the ship have died from coronavirus.

The newest county patient has virus symptoms and was in stable condition Monday in an

isolation room at an unidenti-fied local hospital. The person had traveled from San Fran-cisco to Mexico on an undeter-mined cruise line, and came home 10 days ago. A California Department of Public Health test confirmed the person’s coronavirus diagnosis.

Dr. Celeste Philip, the coun-ty’s health officer, called the

By MARTIN ESPINOZA, JULIE JOHNSON AND TYLER SILVYTHE PRESS DEMOCRAT

TURN TO COVID-19 » PAGE A2 TURN TO SCHOOL » PAGE A2

INSIDE ■Health officials

confirm US death toll is at six / A2

■Market rallies higher after dive last week / A6

BETH SCHLANKER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A woman and paramedic walk outside the emergency room entrance at Sutter Regional Hospital in Santa Rosa on Monday.

A small private school in Healdsburg closed Monday as a precaution

against coronavirus, the only Sonoma County institution to take that step as local education officials hasten to prepare for a potential outbreak of the infec-tious disease.

The Healdsburg School can-celed classes because a person involved in taking care of one of the two confirmed corona-virus patients being treated in isolation at Sonoma County hospitals recently attended an evening event at the school, said Dr. Celeste Philip, the county’s health officer.

Andy Davies, the top admin-istrator, said after talking to county health officials the deci-sion was made to resume classes Tuesday.

Healdsburg school cleared to reopenBy YOUSEF BAIGTHE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Officials seek to trace all local contacts

DALLAS — In a last-minute bid to unite the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg on Monday threw their support behind a pres-idential campaign rival, Joe Biden, giving him an extraordinary boost before the Su-per Tuesday primaries that promised to test his strength against the liberal front-run-ner, Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Even by the standards of the tumultuous 2020 campaign, the dual endorsement from

Klobuchar and Buttigieg — and their plan to join Biden at campaign events in Dallas on Monday night — was remarkable.

Rarely, if ever, have opponents joined forces so dramatically, as Klobuchar and Buttigieg went from campaigning at full tilt in the South Carolina primary Saturday to joining on a political rescue mission for a former competitor, Biden, who they had once regarded as a spent force.

Klobuchar, who sought to appeal to the same moderate voters as Biden and Butti-gieg, and focused her campaign on calling the Democratic Party’s attention to Mid-western states like her native Minnesota, withdrew from the race Monday afternoon after intensive conversations with her aides following Biden’s thumping victory in

Buttigieg, Klobuchar endorse BidenELECTION 2020 » Anti-Sanders alliance forms around ex-VP on eve of Super Tuesday primariesBy ALEXANDER BURNS AND JONATHAN MARTINNEW YORK TIMES

RICHARD W. RODRIGUEZ / ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks after being endorsed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, at a campaign rally Monday in Dallas.TURN TO BIDEN » PAGE A5