“We knew that a third of our voters could not vote in this election, because independents could not vote”, Purcell said, referring to the fact that Arizona’s political parties do not allow open primaries where all registered voters can cast a ballot for any candidate.
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Washington (CNN)Arizona Democrats are calling Thursday for the Department of Justice to investigate what caused some voters to wait in line for five hours to participate in the Arizona primary.
In this March 21, 2016 photo, Maricopa County recorder Helen Purcell speaks at a news conference on Arizona’s presidential primary election in Phoenix. She later backtracked, saying she failed to anticipate the effect of intense voter interest on primary turnout and made bad decisions on setting the number of polling places.
In response to the widespread outrage, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called the conditions “unacceptable”. “They needed to have more polling places”. “The ratios were far more favorable in predominantly Anglo communities: In Cave Creek/Carefree, there was one polling location for 8,500 residents; in Paradise Valley, one for 13,000 residents; in Fountain Hills, one for 22,500 residents; and in Peoria, one for every 54,000 residents”.
Despite these issues, Purcell said she is not going to resign.
The party’s executive director for Arizona, Sheila Healy, said the way the state handled its presidential preference election was a “fiasco on all levels”.
Journalism sophomore Sydnee Schwartz said she waited in line for five hours to cast her vote. The downside of that is that people are having to wait, sometimes a really long time. Some of those people waiting in line were independents and once they got into the polling place, it took extra time to explain to them why they couldn’t cast a ballot or, in some case, give them a provisional ballot to cast that likely won’t be counted.
The lines that resulted from the reduced polling places, a plan that was approved by the state’s Board of Supervisors, upset many voters including Venus Villamgna, a clerical worker from Scottsdale.
The delays meant the County Recorder’s Office did not receive reports from all precincts until about 2 a.m., despite polls officially closing at 7 p.m. Spokeswoman Elizabeth Bartholomew said on election night that some voters stood in line long past midnight.
News organizations called the winners of the races soon after the county released the early vote totals, upsetting some voters who were still stranded in line. Suffice it to say that a local election administrator has to screw up pretty royally to get their name trending on Twitter.
“I’m here to exercise my right to vote”, she told the Arizona Republic, explaining why she had waited in a line that spanned more than 700 people and four city blocks. “They could have voted early or that was their option in this instance”, Purcell said. This is one of the issues that has to be ironed-out right away, so that these votes, if they are applicable, can be counted.
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“A big part of yesterday’s problem was registered voters showing up, and being told they couldn’t vote”, Ducey said.
