Participating in a presidential nomination process during a pandemic

As the 2020 presidential nomination approached, it appeared it would be a highly competitive, drawn-out endeavor to nominate the Democratic presidential candidate, with high levels of voter turnout. However, within the first month, former Vice-President Biden became the clear front-runner with a sole competitor remaining in the race. As uncertainty diminished about who would be the nominee, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Suddenly, voters had to navigate stay-at-home orders and heightened risk, changing the cost–benefit calculation surrounding participating; conventional wisdom suggests that the turnout rate should plummet. However, our analysis uncovers that turnout was remarkably high and remained so throughout the 2020 Democratic nomination. We show that this unexpectedly high turnout was due, in large part, to the easing of voting procedures.