CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago elections official and Illinois' Democratic governor traded accusations on Tuesday as city voters reported problems casting ballots after days of public debate over whether the state's primary should be postponed because of the coronavirus threat.

Chicago officials had warned that they expected to be short on election judges to staff polling places. They also had to scramble to replace more than 200 sites that declined to host voters during the COVID-19 pandemic, including nursing homes and senior facilities that wanted to minimize the threat to their older residents, who are particularly at risk from the disease.

Jim Allen, a spokesman for the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners, said Tuesday morning that the board asked Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week to cancel in-person voting and expand other options, including mail-in ballots, but the governor refused.

"We were urging the postponement of the election, the abandonment of the polling place model of voting and a conversion to vote by mail for the safety of the voting public," Allen said.

Pritzker responded heatedly during a daily briefing on the state's coronavirus cases. He said state law does not give a governor the authority to make the sweeping changes that Chicago election officials wanted.

"I will not use this moment, this moment, to supersede my constitutional authority," Pritzker said. “There are people out there who want to say, 'Its a crisis, bend the rules and overstep your authority.' Let me tell you this: It is exactly in times like these when the constitutional boundaries of our democracy should be respected above all else. And if people want to criticize me for that, well go ahead, I’ll wear it like a badge of honor.”

Staffers for Pritzker fired back earlier, saying the Chicago board was concerned about shortages of election judges but refused numerous offers of help.

"This is a lie," Pritzker's chief of staff, Anne Caprara, wrote on Twitter. “And frankly, given what we are dealing with in this moment, I’m disgusted that Jim Allen would lie like this. We offered them the national guard, young volunteers and assistance with keeping polling places clean.”

Another spokeswoman for the governor, Jordan Abudayyeh, accused the Chicago board of “playing politics instead of doing their job."

“This administration and the governor are focused on our critical health needs around the state today," she said. "The Chicago Board of Elections should find a way to do their job.”

Allen said Tuesday afternoon that the possible use of National Guard troops was discussed, but election officials were concerned about how voters would perceive their presence. He declined to respond directly to the governor's staff's points.

“We know what was said in that meeting. They know what was said in that meeting, and I'll leave it at that,” he said. “I'm not going to take that chum. We gotta move in, we gotta get through this election day.”

Arizona and Florida also proceeded with their primaries on Tuesday, while Ohio leaders postponed their state's contest hours before polls were set to open.

The heated back-and-forth between Illinois officials did little to fix ongoing problems at polling sites in Chicago on Tuesday.

At a polling place inside a Methodist Church in Chicago’s North Side, voters for one precinct were being allowed to vote while others were being turned away because their voting equipment wasn’t delivered Tuesday morning.

Rebecca Gross, a 16-year-old student, had thought about not showing up for her shift at the church as a poll worker over coronavirus concerns but decided she was at a much-reduced risk than others who are older or may have underlying medical conditions.

Gross said equipment still had not been delivered by 1 p.m. Tuesday. Voters were sent to another site about a 15-minute walk away, where lines stretched down the street.

“I know it’s not my fault,” Gross said. “Knowing that whatever is going on at our precinct is causing them an inconvenience in their day, it’s really upsetting hearing people say I won’t be able to vote today because of this.”

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Associated Press writer Christina Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report.