Louisiana is now the 1st state to postpone its primary due to the coronavirus

Voting sign.
(Image credit: Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Louisiana's upcoming presidential primary is set to be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced Friday he's asking the governor to issue an executive order postponing the presidential primary that was set to take place on April 4, CNN reports. The primary is to be moved to June 20.

"The two-month delay of this election will continue to allow our office to procure necessary supplies to put our state in best possible posture for the time when this election is conducted," Ardoin said, per NBC News.

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This is the first state to postpone its primary due to concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, and it comes as primaries in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio are set to take place on Tuesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden in response to the news from Louisiana said Friday that "our elections can be conducted safely in consultation with public health officials."

As more and more events across the country are canceled or postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver speculated Friday that "this will probably not be the only postponement" of a presidential primary.

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