Democrats turn out to register to vote ahead of Arizona primary

PHOENIX — The primary elections for the 2018 midterms are less than a week away and, according to the Secretary of State’s office, Democrats have already turned out in droves to register to vote.

Nearly 15,000 more Arizona voters have registered as Democrats since January, a recent report from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office found.

Of the state’s 3,632,337 voters, 1,264,295 are Republicans, 1,111,580 are Democrats and 1,218,716 have not designated an officially-recognized party preference.

Libertarians and members of the Green Party make approximately one percent of the state’s total registration.

“This period we saw a decrease in Independent voters,” Secretary of State Michelle Reagan told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Thursday,” and it looked like many of them were switching into the Democratic Party.”

Garrett Archer, a senior analyst with the Arizona Secretary of State’s office, said in a tweet that Democratic voters have already surpassed their total 2016 turnout in 146 precincts.

On the other hand, Archer said Republicans have not surpassed their total 2016 turnout in any precinct. He said there are 1,482 precincts with registered voters in Arizona.

Democratic women also “continue to dominate the primary and continue to trend up to 57.1 percent,” Archer added.

The current voting numbers are good news for the Democratic Party, which is hoping that a so-called “blue wave” will crash into Arizona in November.

A June poll of likely voters also showed Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema leading her Republican rivals in head-to-head match-ups.

Sinema topped former state Sen. Kelli Ward 43 percent to 35 percent; Rep. Martha McSally 41 percent to 34 percent and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio 45 percent to 28 percent.

There has also been a major effort by voters to mail in their ballots early: Counties throughout the state have already received 675,000 early ballots mailed in, Reagan said.

In fact, we have exceeded the total number of mail in ballots I have for 2014 (647k) and 2016 (689k) August primaries.

— The AZ Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) August 23, 2018

“That is about 60 percent of [the votes] we are expecting. We are expecting over one million votes to be cast during this primary election,” she said, adding that the expected turnout will be near the record-setting turnout in 2010.

For those voters who have already turned in their early voting ballot and live in Maricopa County and want to check on the status of the ballot, Recorder Adrian Fontes said there are several ways to do so.

“First of all, they can go to our website, Maricopa.vote. They can also text ‘JOIN’ to 628-683 and they will get automatic updates that will come directly to them,” Fontes told KTAR News 92.3 FM. 

Residents who have yet to vote can bring their early voting ballot to a polling location by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, when the polls close.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Taylor Kinnerup contributed to this report. 

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