Arizona law says that independent voters may choose any party’s Primary ballot, but that law doesn’t apply to the Presidential Primaries.
Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, a Republican, parting ways with members of his own party, advocates that currently disenfranchised political independents also be allowed to vote in Presidential Primaries.
Ducey said in a prepared statement he found it "unacceptable" that voters in the state's largest county had to wait in long lines Tuesday, with some voters saying they had five-hour waits, simply to cast a ballot.
"Our election officials must evaluate what went wrong and how to make sure it doesn't happen again," the Governor said. Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell has admitted she severely underestimated the number of people who would decide to go to the polls on Election Day.
Ducey said part of the problem appears to be that a large number of independents sought to vote despite the fact that current Arizona law limits the Presidential Primary to only those registered with the parties whose candidates are being selected.
Preliminary figures from Maricopa County show there were 23,000 people were issued Provisional ballots on Tuesday. Those include people who showed up and insisted on voting despite the fact their names could not be found on the voter rolls of any of the parties holding primaries. More to the point, those votes will not count unless they can show they were, in fact, registered with a party.
"That's just wrong," the Governor said. "If people want to take the time to vote they should be able to, and their vote should be counted."
The comments come a month after the House, largely along party lines, voted to make Tuesday's vote the last-ever Presidential Primary.
That move came at the behest of Secretary of State Michele Reagan. She told lawmakers there was no reason for the State to finance the quadrennial event with nearly 37 percent of the state's 3.2 million registered voters being unable to participate by virtue of not being registered with a political party that is choosing a candidate. Reagan said she had no indication that the parties would voluntarily go along with opening the system to independents.
The legislation would leave it to each party to decide how to choose its Presidential candidates in 2020 and beyond. That could be everything from a caucus system to having the parties contract with, and pay, counties to run their own closed primaries.
Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato said his boss opposes the legislation. He said the Governor not only wants to keep the state-run Presidential Primary but open it up to everyone.
"The governor's view is that people who take the time to vote who are registered voters, that their votes should be counted," he said. "The fact that more people want to participate is a good thing."
I view some of the problems with this Arizona election:
1. When Maricopa County reduced their pooling sites from 200 to 60, some organization should have gone to the Justice Department and the court to put a hold on the change until it could be determined if this was voter suppression.
2. By not printing enough ballots, with the knowledge of the increase turnout, led to having to create on-site Provisional Ballots. It most cases, these never get counted if their votes will not change the outcome.
3. Knowing the State law on independents not allowed to vote in Presidential elections, why did so many try? Whose it a case of not enough voter information or was it a protest by some candidates?
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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