Independent Vote In Arizona 'Hasn't Come to Fruition'

Arizona Week Friday analyzes the results and implications of Tuesday’s Presidential Preference Primary Election.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were the clear winners, as polls predicted.

Unexpected were the problems at the polls.

In Maricopa County, voters waited in line for hours. In some cases, results were announced while people waited to cast a ballot.

Attorney General Mark Brnovich has called for a ban on the release of results until polls close.

Some registered independents who showed up at the polls were surprised then to find they were not able to vote in the election, which was open to registered Democrats, Republicans and Green Party members.

Independents are the largest group of registered voters in the state.

“It hasn’t come to fruition where independents vote to have the impact that they could, but certainly it can happen more and more,” said Joseph Garcia, director of communication and Latino public policy at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

The institute published a study of independent voters in November.

“There is no one composite of what an independent looks like,” Garcia said. However, most independents lean fiscally conservative and socially liberal.

On the program:

• A recap of Arizona campaign stops from Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
• Jason Barraza, a Democratic political strategist, and Barrett Marson, a Republican political strategist, discuss the election with host Lorraine Rivera.
  
• Joseph Garcia, of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, analyzes Arizona’s independent voters.