New figures this afternoon show the outcome of the just-completed primary was decided by only about one out of every four registered voters. Arizona Public Radio’s Howard Fischer reports.
Secretary of State Ken Bennett, doing the formal canvass of the primary, said about 877,000 ballots were cast. Out of a registration of 3.2 million, that amounts to slightly more than 27 percent. Bennett said that’s about 3 points lower than four years ago — the last time there was not a presidential race. But, Bennett said there was one statewide race four years ago that did not occur this year, along with a gubernatorial primary, just like this year, though that 2010 race involved a bid by Republicans to oust incumbent Gov. Jan Brewer.
“I think four years ago you had McCain and Hayworth duking it out in a U.S. Senate primary. And you had an incumbent and two challengers, Martin and Mills, in the governor’s race. So you didn’t have six in the Republican primary but you had three,” Bennett said.
Bennett said he cannot currently figure out which party’s voters were more motivated. While he knows the number of ballots cast for Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Americans Elect candidates, he does not have information at this point about how many of those were cast not by party faithful but by independents who were allowed to vote in any of those four primaries.
