With Early Voting Underway, Candidates Make Final Push Before Super Tuesday

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- With Super Tuesday days away it's time for voters to make their choice. Several campaigns will swing through the Bay Area this weekend and one was in San Francisco Friday.

"Are we going to send a candidate that can't beat Trump in the states he won before?" asked Dr. Jill Biden campaigning for her husband Joe at Fort Mason on Friday.

"Joe can beat Trump. If you look at the polls he's beating him in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin and Michigan," Dr. Biden said, making the case that is the foundation of her husband's campaign: that he is the one who can win back the White House for Democrats in November.

"He's the only viable candidate," said Mark Scheidezker, a Biden supporter at the event. "Bernie is trying to buy the young vote, saying 'I'm going to pay for all your education.' He can't do it."

"I'm going to win South Carolina," the former Vice President said in Tuesday night's debate.

California, however, will be a much tougher challenge for Biden, and everybody else who is not a senator from Vermont. Bernie Sanders has opened a significant lead in the polls, more than 2-to-1 over his competitors who are clustered around 12, 13, 14 percent and that is critical.

The Democratic Party awards delegates only to those who reach 15 percent statewide or in one of California's congressional districts. If a candidate fails to hit 15 percent they get none which poses real risk.

"You don't cross 15 percent statewide, you don't cross 15 percent in a whole bunch of the 53 congressional districts, you're coming out of California with next to nothing," explained political strategist Darry Sragow.

This is the weekend for one last push. Bernie Sanders will be in the Bay Area on Sunday.

Some Bay Area counties are already processing ballots so the vote truly is underway in California.

As of Friday, more than 2.7 million of nearly 20.7 million registered voters had returned ballots in early voting, Secretary of State Alex Padilla said.

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