Arizona Democratic primary, 2016

Arizona Democratic primary, 2016

March 22, 2016

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

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

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[12] Margin of error: ± 5.4% Sample size: 300	March 7-11, 2016	Hillary Clinton 50%	Bernie Sanders 24%	Others / Undecided 26%
MBQF Consulting and Marson Media[13] Margin of error: ± 3.6% Sample size: 739	Published February 29, 2016	Hillary Clinton 56%	Bernie Sanders 22%	Others / Undecided 22%
Behavior Research Center[14] Margin of error: ± 7.3% Sample size: 186	October 24 – November 5, 2015	Hillary Clinton 47%	Bernie Sanders 19%	Martin O'Malley 2% Uncommitted 32%
One America News[15] Margin of error: ± 4.7% Sample size: 427	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 [16] Margin of error: ± 6% Sample size: 268	May 1–3, 2015	Hillary Clinton 58%	Bernie Sanders 16%	Lincoln Chafee 5% Jim Webb 5% Martin O'Malley 4% Not sure 12%

Results

 Democratic Party's presidential nominating process in Arizona, 2016
– Summary of results –

Candidate	Popular vote		Estimated delegates
	Count	Percentage	Pledged	Unpledged	Total
Hillary Clinton	262,459	56.29%	42	6	48
Bernie Sanders	192,962	41.39%	33	1	34
Martin O'Malley (withdrawn)	3,877	0.83%
Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente	2,797	0.60%
Michael Steinberg	2,295	0.49%
Henry Hewes	1,845	0.40%
Uncommitted	N/A			3	3
Total	466,235	100%	75	10	85
Source: The Green Papers, Arizona Secretary of State

Detailed results per congressional district

Detailed results for the Arizona Democratic primary, April 5, 2016^[17][18]

District	Total		Hillary Clinton			Bernie Sanders
	Votes	Delegates	Votes	%	Delegates	Votes	%	Delegates
1st district	63,863	6	35,445	55.50%	3	26,267	41.13%	3
2nd district	78,237	8	42,797	54.70%	4	33,891	43.32%	4
3rd district	51,520	5	30,298	58.81%	3	20,091	39.00%	2
4th district	37,273	4	15,289	55.43%	2	20,662	41.02%	2
5th district	40,847	5	22,973	56.24%	3	16,982	41.57%	2
6th district	50,465	6	29,266	57.99%	4	20,259	40.14%	2
7th district	42,199	5	24,245	57.45%	3	17,173	40.70%	2
8th district	46,491	5	27,672	59.52%	3	17,651	37.97%	2
9th district	55,340	6	29,101	52.59%	3	25,359	45.82%	3
At-large delegates	466,235	16	262,459	56.29%	9	192,962	41.39%	7
Pledged PLEOs	466,235	9	262,459	56.29%	5	192,962	41.39%	4
Total	466,235	75	262,464	56.29%	42	192,965	41.39%	33

Results By County

County [19]	Clinton	Votes	Sanders	Votes
Apache	66.4%	4,450	28.8%	1,933
Cochise	56.5%	4,654	39.7%	3,265
Coconino	44.1%	5,738	53.4%	6,941
Gila	59.2%	2,196	35.2%	1,305
Grahahm	49.1%	937	44.6%	851
Greenlee	54.6%	497	35.7%	325
La Paz	51.7%	309	43.3%	259
Maricopa	58.1%	126,988	39.8%	86,942
Mohave	56.4%	4,170	38.5%	2,847
Navajo	59.7%	4,415	35.4%	2,621
Pima	57.3%	56,317	40.9%	40,228
Pina	62.1%	9,771	34.4%	5,414
Santa Cruz	65.8%	2,496	31.8%	1,205
Yavapai	52.9%	8,401	44.7%	7,108
Yuma	63.7%	4,358	31.5%	2,156
Total	56.29%	262,459	41.39%	192,962

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

1. Arizona Secretary of State
2. CNN, Eugene Scott. "DOJ looking into voter suppression claims in Arizona". CNN. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
3. "Arizona primary: Maricopa County had one polling site for every 21,000 voters". azcentral. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
4. "Election Other – President Obama Job Approval". RealClearPolitics. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
5. Sabato, Larry J. (May 11, 2015). "Clinton's Real Opponent: Barack Obama". Politico. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
6. Beal, Tom (29 January 2005). "Counties inconsistent in provisional-vote rules". votersunite.org. Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
7. "Voting Rights Act Section 4 Struck Down By Supreme Court".
8. "Petition to White House about Arizona 'voter suppression' hit goal in about 40 hours".
9. TEGNA. "Petition to White House about Arizona 'voter suppression' hit goal in about 40 hours". KPNX. Retrieved 2016-06-05.
10. Cohn, Nate (January 16, 2015). "What a Rise in Obama's Approval Rating Means for 2016". The New York Times. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
11. Lachman, Samantha; Reilly, Ryan J. (April 4, 2016). "The DOJ Is Investigating Arizona's Election Mess". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
12. "New Arizona poll: Trump, Clinton lead but ample undecideds". March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
13. "Clinton dusting Sanders in Arizona poll". February 29, 2016.
14. "HILLARY CLINTON BESTS BERNIE SANDERS IN TEST PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION BY 47% TO 19%" (PDF). November 19, 2015.
15. "Arizona Polling Results" (PDF). One America News. Retrieved 2015-08-20.
16. "Clinton Closely Matched With Most Republicans in Arizona" (PDF). Publicpolicypolling.com. Retrieved 2015-07-11.
17. "Arizona Democratic Delegation 2016". thegreenpapers.com. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
18. "2016 Arizona District-Level Delegate Math" (PDF). Arizona Democratic Party. April 5, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
19. "2016 Election Center". cnn.com. Retrieved 24 September 2016.
20. "Arizona Primary Election Results". Retrieved 2016-08-07.
21. "Arizona is Tuesday's biggest prize". Retrieved 2016-08-07.
22. "Arizona Primary: Native Americans Could Be Key For Democrats". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-08-07.