Primaries
AZ: Confusion Erupts, Could Delay Results
By Ann Scott Tyson
Confusion erupted at some Arizona polling places today when some voters arrived to cast ballots -- only to be told their vote wouldn't count, or to be turned away.
The glitch arose because Arizona's independent voters mistakenly believed that because they are allowed to vote for Democrats or Republicans in other elections, they could also do so in presidential primaries like the one today, according to state officials. But by state law, today's primaries are open only to registered party members.
"Unfortunately, these folks are being issued a provisional ballot and told it will not count" or, in some counties, are not being allowed to vote, said Kevin Tyne, deputy secretary of state.
For this and other reasons, Tyne estimates that there will be more than 100,000 provisional ballots cast that will take about a week to process. If the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is as close as expected, the result in Arizona could be delayed for several days, Tyne said.
Arizona has 67 Democratic and 53 Republican delegates up for grabs. John McCain is expected to win by a comfortable margin in his home state.
Posted at 6:52 PM ET on Feb 5, 2008
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Posted by: Ethan immlg | April 10, 2008 5:48 AM
I am extremely upset that I was unable to vote. I registered when I moved (2 years ago) and was never sent a voter's card. I re-registered a few weeks ago and was told I would get my card in 4-6 weeks and until then, I would only get a provisional ballot. My husband was also given a provisional ballot, even though he was registered correctly and was at the right precinct. He was told that his name was not on their list.
What is the use of a provisional ballot??? We all know that it won't count!
Arizona really needs to get their voting procedures fixed so our votes can count for something!
Posted by: haileybloom888 | February 6, 2008 10:34 AM
good job, irk. You sure did better than I did!
Crazy that a few thousand people were able to vote for a candidate that is no longer running, and I showed up as a registered voter but couldn't vote for any of the candidates still running. Phoo...
There were long lines, and a good number of disgruntled people in North Phoenix... I hope the people in line behind me got to vote before the polls closed.
Posted by: mishte | February 6, 2008 1:20 AM
I waited in line for an hour and a half to vote in Phoenix. The election workers in charge told us that they ran out of paperwork (ballots?) earlier in the day, that there were not enough election workers, and that there were massive delays with the provisional ballots. They said that this was a problem across Maricopa county, which covers much of the state. Irritating as this delay was, I was impressed and proud that virtually no one left the long line. Voters waited in relatively good spirits, showing more enthusiasm for voting than I have ever seen among Americans.
Posted by: irk | February 6, 2008 12:05 AM
"ONLY registered Democrats and Republicans would count in the primaries. Independents are welcome in the general election."
From the Maricopa County Recorder's website FAQ:
8. I'm a registered Independent. Can I vote in the Primary Election?
Yes! Arizona is now an open primary state. Independents may vote for candidates of recognized parties in the Primary Election.
10.My voter registration says my party is PND. What is that?
PND means "party not designated".
That means when you registered to vote, you didn't list a party choice, so it was marked as PND.
Posted by: mishte | February 5, 2008 9:37 PM
I was just turned away from the polling place, and I am outraged. This article and the AZcentral articles both refer to this as the "Arizona Presidential Primary".
The County Recorder's website's FAQ says that Independents can vote because Arizona is now an "open primary" state. Here is the link:
http://recorder.maricopa.gov/web/faqs.aspx
Apparently Arizona is calling this the "Presidential Preference" election, and the November Election is what they call the Primary.
I checked and double checked to make sure that I was registered (right on the AZ website) and I did everything I was supposed to do because I did not want to run into any problems.
I hope enough people speak up and complain because this is just absolutely unacceptable.
Posted by: mishte | February 5, 2008 9:34 PM
The real story is on the Arizona Republic site: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/president/articles/0205super-azprimary0205.html
The issue is massive delay at the polls, people erroneously being told they are at the wrong precincts, and confusion about whether they already got early ballots or not. Those could lead to provisional ballots that will count for something later.
Provisional ballots cast for independents are USELESS... it is not as if in a week the rules will have changed. Why is this analysis focused on mistakes some individuals made, rather than the confusion resulting from state issues?
I guess the mention of "other reasons" leading to the 100,000 provisional ballots is enough detail for WaPo readers.
This analysis is terrible
Posted by: dabendschein | February 5, 2008 7:45 PM
The "confusion" is due to voters not paying attention to the published rules. The Arizona website made it very clear that votes from ONLY registered Democrats and Republicans would count in the primaries. Independents are welcome in the general election.
Posted by: jarizona | February 5, 2008 7:27 PM
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