Primary election representative candidates share their reaction to election results

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - We spoke to both District 23 candidates Mariana Sandoval and Matias Rosales Wednesday after the Associated Press announced their wins. Both share their reaction to the results.

"I'm excited to make the primary and move to the general and start campaigning toward that general election of November the 5th," said candidate Matias Rosales.

Candidate Matias Rosales served 12 years on the San Luis City Council. Seven of those years he served as vice mayor and the rest on and off as a council member.

The second candidate is representative Mariana Sandoval who is looking to keep her seat. She has a background in legislature, being a school board member, and working at the attorney general's office for 12 years.

"I'm relieved and excited of course that the community has decided to send me to the general election in November," said Sandoval. "I am however a little disappointed in the turnout rate in our community, so we have a lot of work to do for the general election in November."

Representative Sandoval says out of the 30 districts in the entire state, legislative District 23 was one of the lowest ranking district in voter turnout.

"If you look at the results of my win, they are very very very low in comparison to the previous election in comparison to other races around the state," said Sandoval.

Sandoval shares three factors she said she thinks caused voting barriers and low voter turnout:

1. "Part of it was the date was changed to July. People are not used to voting in July," said Sandoval.
2. "If you don't vote in two consecutive elections, and you get purged out of the early voting, and you don't get your ballot at home, people are less likely to go and vote. It was hot, people didn't want to leave their house, and so had they had their ballots, people would have gone and voted," said Sandoval.
3. "The third thing I heard, especially in the city of San Luis, was voter supression with the prosecution of the local community leaders that are usually the ones out getting the vote out in the city. When they were convicted of ballot harvesting, that really scared that entire community."

Both Rosales and Sandoval said they are already preparing for campaigning and ready to hit the ground running.

There are 14 weeks left until the general election. Both Rosales and Sandoval are running against Michelle Pena in November.