Over 100,000 Rhode Islanders voted in person or using mail ballots during Tuesday’s presidential primary election, which former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are projected to win the state’s Democratic and Republic contests, respectively.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, in-person voter turnout was low. Over 20,000 in-person votes were cast, according to Miguel Nunez, deputy director of the Board of Elections, but more than 90,000 voters submitted mail ballots. The combined turnout is in line with what was seen in Rhode Island’s 2016 presidential primary. Due to the volume of mail ballots, Nunez does not expect to receive a final vote tally until Friday, June 5.

“The direction for this election was to be a primarily mail ballot election,” Nunez said. “Our office, the state office and the local canvass offices have been promoting it due to social distancing. An application for mail ballot was sent to every registered voter in the state.”

Although not all votes have been processed due to mail-in voting, in-person polling and reviewed mall ballots predict solid victories for Biden in the Democratic primary and Trump in the Republican primary. According to the state Board of Elections, Biden received about 61.4 percent of the in-person vote with 45 out of 49 precincts reporting. Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders earned 29.6 percent of in-person Democratic voters. Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and businessman Andrew Yang each earned under 5 percent of the vote.

On the Republican side, incumbent President Donald Trump won 93.2 percent of all in-person votes in the Republican primary. Other candidates Bill Weld and Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente only won 3 percent or less of voters.

There were 47 in-person polling locations for Tuesday’s vote compared to 2016’s 144, according to the Board of Elections. Nunez said the polling stations were consolidated partially because many in-person voters are senior citizens, who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. In-person voters were required to wear face masks, not share pens and stand 6 feet apart, while poll operators wore personal protective equipment.

One of the greatest challenges regarding mail ballots is counting votes in a timely manner. Although everything ultimately worked out according to McCarthy, counting every mail ballot was a stressful process.

“If there’s a predominantly mail ballot election, I will retire,” McCarthy said. “If it was planned and prepared ahead of time, where the voter fills out an application and the information can be processed electronically by scanning the application, fine. But to get over 11,000 mail ballots uploaded manually is a daunting task.”

The adjustments and changes during this primary election will be reviewed by the secretary of state, who will evaluate what worked – and what didn’t – regarding elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nick Domings, public information officer for the secretary of state’s office, said that this information will be used to organize the general election this fall.

“It was a great learning experience for us and for voters because we are probably going to have to do this again in the fall,” Domings said. “It was a great opportunity to learn what to do in the future.”

Primary results in Warwick were similar to those statewide. Trump won 95.9 percent of Republican votes in Warwick. Weld, who was the runner-up, earned 1.9 percent of the vote. Biden won 60.3 percent of Warwick’s Democratic primary votes, with Sanders receiving 28.3 percent. Warren, Gabbard and Yang all earned under 5 percent of the city’s Democratic primary votes.

Sanders, Warren, Gabbard and Yang have all dropped out of the race during the previous months, but have remained on the ballot. All of them have since endorsed Biden.

According to Warwick Director of the Board of Canvassers Dottie McCarthy, these candidates may remain on the ballot due to not necessarily writing their intent to drop out to election boards. Voters may not know that their favored candidate has dropped out, or may vote for them anyway out of protest.

“When a candidate declares that they are going to run for office, they do it in writing,” McCarthy said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s citywide, statewide, national. When these candidates drop out, they do it publicly. But they don’t always write that they should withdraw.”