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The 2016 Arizona Democratic presidential 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
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, enacted by Republican officials despite the number of registered voters having increased from 300,000 in 2012 to 800,000 in 2016. 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. Voters who did manage to vote had to stand in long lines to cast their ballots, some for as long as five hours. Additionally, voters reported being required to vote with a provisional ballot. In 2005, Arizona threw out 27,878 provisional ballots, counting only about 72.5% of the total provisional ballots reported. 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. In Maricopa County, Republican officials have conducted voter purges that disproportionately affected poor and minority areas.
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. The petition reached 100,000 signatures in 40 hours, and as of June 5, 2016, nearly 220,000 people had 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.
Both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, as well as the Democratic National Committee, sued the Arizona state government over the alleged voter suppression. The Department of Justice has since launched a federal investigation into the primary.
Opinion polling
See also: Statewide opinion polling for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries| Poll source | Date | 1st | 2nd | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official Primary results | March 22, 2016 | Hillary Clinton 56.3% |
Bernie Sanders 41.4% |
Others 2.3% |
| Merrill Poll
Margin of error: ± 5.4%
|
March 7–11, 2016 | Hillary Clinton 50% |
Bernie Sanders 24% |
Others / Undecided 26% |
| MBQF Consulting and Marson Media
Margin of error: ± 3.6%
|
Published February 29, 2016 | Hillary Clinton 56% |
Bernie Sanders 22% |
Others / Undecided 22% |
| Behavior Research Center
Margin of error: ± 7.3%
|
October 24 – November 5, 2015 | Hillary Clinton 47% |
Bernie Sanders 19% |
Martin O'Malley 2% Uncommitted 32% |
| One America News
Margin of error: ± 4.7%
|
Published August 17, 2015 | Hillary Clinton 56% |
Bernie Sanders 34% |
Joe Biden 6% Lincoln Chafee 2% Jim Webb 1% Martin O'Malley 1% |
| Public Policy Polling
Margin of error: ± 6%
|
May 1–3, 2015 | Hillary Clinton 58% |
Bernie Sanders 16% |
Lincoln Chafee 5% Jim Webb 5% Martin O'Malley 4% Not sure 12% |
Results
See also: Results of the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
| Candidate | Popular vote | Estimated delegates | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Pledged | Unpledged | Total | |
| Hillary Clinton | 262,459 | 56.3% | 42 | 6 | 48 |
| Bernie Sanders | 192,962 | 41.4% | 33 | 1 | 34 |
| Martin O'Malley (withdrawn) | 3,877 | 0.8% | |||
| Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente | 2,797 | 0.6% | |||
| Michael Steinberg | 2,295 | 0.5% | |||
| Henry Hewes | 1,845 | 0.4% | |||
| Uncommitted | — | 3 | 3 | ||
| Total | 466,235 | 100% | 75 | 10 | 85 |
| Source: | |||||
Detailed results per congressional district
| District | Total | Hillary Clinton | Bernie Sanders | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Delegates | Votes | % | Delegates | Votes | % | Delegates | |
| 1st district | 63,863 | 6 | 35,445 | 55.5% | 3 | 26,267 | 41.1% | 3 |
| 2nd district | 78,237 | 8 | 42,797 | 54.7% | 4 | 33,891 | 43.3% | 4 |
| 3rd district | 51,520 | 5 | 30,298 | 58.8% | 3 | 20,091 | 39.0% | 2 |
| 4th district | 37,273 | 4 | 20,662 | 55.4% | 2 | 15,289 | 41.0% | 2 |
| 5th district | 40,847 | 5 | 22,973 | 56.2% | 3 | 16,982 | 41.6% | 2 |
| 6th district | 50,465 | 6 | 29,266 | 58.0% | 4 | 20,259 | 40.1% | 2 |
| 7th district | 42,199 | 5 | 24,245 | 57.5% | 3 | 17,173 | 40.7% | 2 |
| 8th district | 46,491 | 5 | 27,672 | 59.5% | 3 | 17,651 | 38.0% | 2 |
| 9th district | 55,340 | 6 | 29,101 | 52.6% | 3 | 25,359 | 45.8% | 3 |
| At-large delegates | 466,235 | 16 | 262,459 | 56.3% | 9 | 192,962 | 41.4% | 7 |
| Pledged PLEOs | 466,235 | 9 | 262,459 | 56.3% | 5 | 192,962 | 41.4% | 4 |
| Total | 466,235 | 75 | 262,464 | 56.3% | 42 | 192,965 | 41.4% | 33 |
Results by county
| County | Clinton | % | Sanders | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apache | 4,450 | 66.4% | 1,933 | 28.8% |
| Cochise | 4,654 | 56.5% | 3,265 | 39.7% |
| Coconino | 5,738 | 44.1% | 6,941 | 53.4% |
| Gila | 2,196 | 59.2% | 1,305 | 35.2% |
| Graham | 937 | 49.1% | 851 | 44.6% |
| Greenlee | 497 | 54.6% | 325 | 35.7% |
| La Paz | 309 | 51.7% | 259 | 43.3% |
| Maricopa | 126,988 | 58.1% | 86,942 | 39.8% |
| Mohave | 4,170 | 56.4% | 2,847 | 38.5% |
| Navajo | 4,415 | 59.7% | 2,621 | 35.4% |
| Pima | 56,317 | 57.3% | 40,228 | 40.9% |
| Pinal | 9,771 | 62.1% | 5,414 | 34.4% |
| Santa Cruz | 2,496 | 65.8% | 1,205 | 31.8% |
| Yavapai | 8,401 | 52.9% | 7,108 | 44.7% |
| Yuma | 4,358 | 63.7% | 2,156 | 31.5% |
| Total | 262,459 | 56.3% | 192,962 | 41.4% |
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.
Bernie Sanders made a late play for the state of Arizona, including airing Spanish-language ads featuring Congressman Raúl Grijalva. Hillary Clinton offset his efforts with advertising featuring former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and airing radio ads in the Navajo language.
References
- Arizona Secretary of State
- ^ Eugene Scott (April 5, 2016). "DOJ looking into voter suppression claims in Arizona". CNN. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
- "Arizona primary: Maricopa County had one polling site for every 21,000 voters". azcentral. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
- "Election Other – President Obama Job Approval". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
- Sabato, Larry J. (May 11, 2015). "Clinton's Real Opponent: Barack Obama". Politico. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
- Beal, Tom (January 29, 2005). "Counties inconsistent in provisional-vote rules". votersunite.org. Arizona Daily Star. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
- Dianna M. Náñez and Agnel Philip (November 4, 2018). "Maricopa County residents purged from voter rolls more than 1 million times in past decade". Arizona Republic. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
- "Petition to White House about Arizona 'voter suppression' hit goal in about 40 hours". Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
- TEGNA. "Petition to White House about Arizona 'voter suppression' hit goal in about 40 hours". KPNX. Archived from the original on September 12, 2016. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
- Cohn, Nate (January 16, 2015). "What a Rise in Obama's Approval Rating Means for 2016". The New York Times. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
- Eugene Scott (April 14, 2016). "Clinton, Sanders campaigns join DNC suit over alleged Arizona voter suppression". CNN. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
- Lachman, Samantha; Reilly, Ryan J. (April 4, 2016). "The DOJ Is Investigating Arizona's Election Mess". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- Official Primary results
- "New Arizona poll: Trump, Clinton lead but ample undecideds". March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
- "Clinton dusting Sanders in Arizona poll". February 29, 2016.
- "Hillary Clinton Bests Bernie Sanders in Test Presidential Election by 47% to 19%" (PDF). November 19, 2015.
- "Arizona Polling Results" (PDF). One America News. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
- "Clinton Closely Matched With Most Republicans in Arizona" (PDF). Publicpolicypolling.com. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
- The Green Papers
- Arizona Secretary of State
- "Arizona Democratic Delegation 2016". thegreenpapers.com. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
- "2016 Arizona District-Level Delegate Math" (PDF). Arizona Democratic Party. April 5, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 18, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
- "2016 Election Center". CNN. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
- "Arizona Primary Election Results". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
- ^ "Arizona is Tuesday's biggest prize". MSNBC. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
- "Arizona Primary: Native Americans Could Be Key For Democrats". NPR.org. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
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