2016 Arizona Democratic presidential primary

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2016 Arizona Democratic presidential primary

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Candidate Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders
Home state New York Vermont
Delegate count 42 33
Popular vote 262,459[1] 192,962
Percentage 56.3% 41.4%

Results by county:
Clinton:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%
Sanders:      50-60%

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[edit]

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, enacted by Republican officials 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] 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.[7]

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 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.[10]

Both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, as well as the Democratic National Committee, sued the Arizona state government over the alleged voter suppression.[11] The Department of Justice has since launched a federal investigation into the primary.[12]

Opinion polling[edit]

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[13]

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[14]

Margin of error: ± 3.6%
Sample size: 739

Published February 29, 2016 Hillary Clinton
56%
Bernie Sanders
22%
Others / Undecided
22%
Behavior Research Center[15]

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[16]

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 [17]

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[edit]


e • d 2016 Democratic Party's presidential nominating process in Arizona
– Summary of results –
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: The Green Papers, Arizona Secretary of State

Detailed results per congressional district[edit]

Detailed results for the Arizona Democratic primary, April 5, 2016[18][19]
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[edit]

County[20] 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[edit]

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.[21]

Bernie Sanders made a late play for the state of Arizona, including airing Spanish-language ads featuring Congressman Raúl Grijalva.[22] Hillary Clinton offset his efforts with advertising featuring former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords,[22] and airing radio ads in the Navajo language.[23]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Arizona Secretary of State
  2. ^ a b Eugene Scott (April 5, 2016). "DOJ looking into voter suppression claims in Arizona". CNN. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  3. ^ "Arizona primary: Maricopa County had one polling site for every 21,000 voters". azcentral. Retrieved June 5, 2016.
  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 (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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "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.
  9. ^ 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.
  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. ^ Eugene Scott (April 14, 2016). "Clinton, Sanders campaigns join DNC suit over alleged Arizona voter suppression". CNN. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  12. ^ Lachman, Samantha; Reilly, Ryan J. (April 4, 2016). "The DOJ Is Investigating Arizona's Election Mess". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  13. ^ "New Arizona poll: Trump, Clinton lead but ample undecideds". March 15, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.
  14. ^ "Clinton dusting Sanders in Arizona poll". February 29, 2016.
  15. ^ "Hillary Clinton Bests Bernie Sanders in Test Presidential Election by 47% to 19%" (PDF). November 19, 2015.
  16. ^ "Arizona Polling Results" (PDF). One America News. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
  17. ^ "Clinton Closely Matched With Most Republicans in Arizona" (PDF). Publicpolicypolling.com. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  18. ^ "Arizona Democratic Delegation 2016". thegreenpapers.com. Retrieved May 21, 2016.
  19. ^ "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.
  20. ^ "2016 Election Center". CNN. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
  21. ^ "Arizona Primary Election Results". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  22. ^ a b "Arizona is Tuesday's biggest prize". MSNBC. Retrieved August 7, 2016.
  23. ^ "Arizona Primary: Native Americans Could Be Key For Democrats". NPR.org. Retrieved August 7, 2016.