Four large states are holding primaries on Tuesday (March 17) and there are alarming concerns that the coronavirus will scare off poll workers, possibly creating an election-day disaster.

Ohio, Illinois, Florida, and Arizona’s primaries are on Tuesday and the state’s board of elections are begging workers to stay on. Top election officials from the states have put out a joint statement on Friday seeking to calm concerns of the pandemic.

“Based on the best information we have from public health officials, we are confident that voters in our states can safely and securely cast their ballots in this election, and that otherwise healthy poll workers can and should carry out their patriotic duties on Tuesday,” Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), Florida Secretary of State Laurel Lee (R), Illinois Elections Board Chairman Charles Scholz (D) and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) said in a joint statement.

Poll workers, paid volunteers who help run precincts across the country, have been resigning in droves as many are concerned with being exposed to COVID-19. And since most primary elections have happened during a weekday, more than half of poll workers are over the age of 60 – often retirees. As noted by the CDC, older men and women who contract the coronavirus are much more likely to die from complications or are more severely affected by it.

In Ohio specifically, Franklin County, the state’s largest city by population and home to its capital Columbus, hundreds of poll workers have quit in recent days. Many of those have cited the virus as the reason for their resignation.

County Board of Elections spokesman Aaron Sellers said that at last count, the county is 241 volunteers short of the 3,200 they need to feel confident in a smoothly run election. As of Thursday, Sellers says they were losing approximately three volunteers for every new recruit they’d landed in recent days.

“We have had some poll workers for legitimate reasons decide they don’t want to work. We’re working with local governments, business communities, and the Columbus Bar Association to fill the gaps we have,” Sellers told VICE News.

Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State, told VICE that 1,200 new poll working volunteers have signed up after the state made a plea for people to do their “patriotic duty.”

“For healthy people, it’s safe to be a poll worker, it’s safe to be a voter, and the good news is large numbers of poll workers are sticking with us,” he said. “People tend to step up in a situation like this. It’s our nature to want to donate blood after a mass shooting, donate supplies after a hurricane.”

According to Live Science, around 2,175 people in the United States have been confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus while many other cases have yet gone undetected. Sadly, 47 people have reportedly died.

Globally there are nearly 128,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 4,718 deaths.

For the latest on the coronavirus, contact your local health department and visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.