"The power to suspend an election, the power to delay an election, is not one we have. It rests with the legislature and the courts," Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said at the press conference. "I hope and anticipate the judge will agree with us."

Later Monday, Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams announced that he and Gov. Andy Beshear had agreed to delay the state's May primary until June 23. "There could be more changes, but this was a first step to buy us time," Adams said in his announcement. Kentucky is the third state to formally delay its primary, following Louisiana and Georgia.

In Ohio, DeWine said at the press conference that a lawsuit will be filed in Franklin County on Monday by voters who feared for their health, with support of the state. DeWine said that, if the court grants the order, absentee voting should be allowed to take place between now and June 2.

"One would assume, because of the pending election, this decision would need to be made very quickly," DeWine said.

The Ohio officials seemed hesitant to entertain the idea that a judge would not grant the extraordinary measure of postponing the election, but they said the state would be ready if that was the case.

"If that was necessitated, I have no doubt that the patriotic Ohio election officials would get that job done," LaRose said.

DeWine acknowledged that he doesn't know if the virus will still be prevalent in June, saying that September would have been a safer bet to hold the primary — but one that is not possible because it would interfere with the November general election for president. Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said both state party chairs were consulted and supportive of the decision, though he acknowledged the last-minute nature of the announcement risks confusing voters.

The move represents a significant escalation in state action to fight the coronavirus outbreak. Already, Ohio election officials had relocated or closed nearly 150 polling places that were originally supposed to be in nursing homes and assisted living facilities and recruited backup poll workers to replace those who were not comfortable serving due to their age or health status.

Over the weekend, before deciding to move election day, Ohio officials ordered county boards of elections to set up curbside voting options and extend the deadline to request an absentee ballot for anyone impacted by the virus.

As recently as Friday, election officials from all four states voting Friday, including LaRose, said that the March 17 elections would go on as scheduled. But after DeWine held his press conference, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that he "feel[s] good about the decision to let the election go on tomorrow."

"Look, we have to have our elections continue, in my opinion," Pritzker said. "This is the right thing to do. Our democracy needs to go on. We have to elect leaders."

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot also said Monday that she wanted "to encourage everybody to go out and vote today and if you choose to vote tomorrow, it's going to be safe."

In Florida, Secretary of State Laurel Lee said Monday evening at a press conference that the state will still hold its primary on Tuesday. Lee said nearly 2 million people have already voted.

Natasha Korecki contributed to this report.