Arizona Democratic primary, 2016

Arizona Democratic primary, 2016

March 22, 2016 (2016-03-22)
Candidate Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders Home state New York Vermont Delegate count 42 33 Popular vote 262,459[1] 192,962 Percentage 56.29% 41.39%
Election results by county.   Hillary Clinton   Bernie Sanders

Elections in Arizona
Federal government Presidential elections 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 Presidential primaries Democratic 2004 2008 2016 Republican 2008 2012 U.S. Senate elections 1912 1914 1916 1920 1922 1926 1928 1932 1934 1938 1940 1944 1946 1950 1952 1956 1958 1962 1964 1968 1970 1974 1976 1980 1982 1986 1988 1992 1994 1998 2000 2004 2006 2010 2012 2016 2018 U.S. House elections 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 1st 8th 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Special elections 8th district, 2012
State government State elections 2006 2010 2014 Gubernatorial elections 1911 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 Ballot propositions 2000 203 2004 200 204 2006 107 207 2008 102 2010 100 203 Legislature elections 2006
Phoenix Mayoral elections 2011 2015
Tucson Mayoral elections 2011

The 2016 Arizona Democratic primary was held on March 22 in the U.S. state of Arizona as one of the Democratic Party's primaries ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

On the same day, the Democratic Party held caucuses in Idaho and Utah, while the Republican Party held primaries in two states, including their own Arizona primary and a primary in American Samoa.

Voter suppression controversy

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally at Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix on March 21, 2016.

Senator Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix on March 15, 2016.

Former President Bill Clinton at a campaign rally for his wife at Central High School in Phoenix on March 20, 2016.

There was controversy surrounding the Arizona primary elections of 2016, specifically having to do with the decrease in polling places in Maricopa County from 200 in 2012 to only 60 in 2016, despite the number of registered voters having increased from 300,000 in 2012 to 800,000 in 2016.^[2][3] This decrease in polling places was most pronounced in minority neighborhoods, most notably Latino neighborhoods, with areas like Central Phoenix having only one polling place for 108,000 voters. There were also reports of voters who had been previously registered coming up as unregistered or registered as an independent, making them ineligible to vote in the closed primary.^[2] Voters who did manage to vote had to stand in long lines to cast their ballots, some for as long as five hours.^[4] Additionally, voters reported being required to vote with a provisional ballot.^[5] In 2005, Arizona threw out 27,878 provisional ballots, counting only about 72.5% of the total provisional ballots reported.^[6] Taking into account the effects of the Supreme Court's "gutting of the Voting Rights Act",^[7] it's unknown what percentage of the provisional ballots were counted in 2016. This was the first election in the state of Arizona since the 2013 Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which would have previously required states with a history of voter discrimination, including Arizona, to receive Federal approval before implementing any changes to voting laws and practices.

Within a day after the election took place on March 22, a petition went viral on the White House petitions site asking the Department of Justice to investigate voter suppression and election fraud in Arizona.^[8] The petition reached 100,000 signatures in 40 hours,^[9] and as of June 5, 2016, nearly 220,000 people have signed the petition. The White House responded on May 20, 2016. In addition, Phoenix mayor Greg Stanton asked the Justice Department to launch an investigation into the allegations of voter suppression.^[10]

The Department of Justice has since launched a federal investigation into the primary.^[11]

Opinion polling

Results

Detailed results per congressional district

Results by county

Analysis

A Clinton win in Arizona was expected; she had beat Barack Obama in the state eight years earlier by a similar wide margin, and she generally performed well with minority voters in the 2016 primaries. She won in counties with high populations of Hispanic voters, including the largest county Maricopa where the capital city of Phoenix is located, and she also performed well in counties with large populations of Native Americans including Apache County and Navajo County. Sanders won only in Coconino County.^[20]

Bernie Sanders made a late play for the state of Arizona, including airing Spanish-language ads featuring Congressman Raúl Grijalva.^[21] Hillary Clinton offset his efforts with advertising featuring former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords,^[21] and airing radio ads in the Navajo language.^[22]

References