Less than 25% of registered voters hit the polls
Unofficial primary election results for Yuma County - 13 On Your Side's Arlette Yousif reports
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA/KECY) - Final unofficial results for Arizona's primary election in Yuma show that voter turnout was actually higher than expected.
With over 103,000 registered voters in Yuma County, just over 25,000 of them cast their vote during the primary election. While the number seems low, it's actually on the higher end compared to the previous primary election.
It's been more than one week since the Arizona primary.
Tiffany Anderson says the primary election was a smooth process at all locations with the exception of running low on ballots at a few voting centers but the county was able to quickly deliver more ballots to not interrupt voting.
“We are on the higher range. We’re about, we’re a little over 24% voter turnout for the August 2 primary election, which is more in alignment with a presidential year rather than a midterm year. We do think that was driven in large part by some of our more contested local races as well as a lot of Republican candidates on the ballot,” says Election Services Director Tiffany Anderson.
Howard Blitz, Founder and Director of The Freedom Library was a volunteer observer on Election Day.
“The people of Yuma County can be very, very secure in their feelings on how our elections take place here because from my vantage point the elections department takes extreme care,” explains Blitz.
Now that the ballots are fully counted, the Election Services Department is preparing to take the results to the Yuma County Board of Supervisors.
"The canvas of the election is the formal adoption of the results. It does contain additional reports that have more details about how many ballots were cast per precinct, you know, what is the voter turnout by political party. But it's not necessarily a fact-finding mission," says Anderson.
Primary election early votes this year accounted for over 83% of the total votes.
Back in 2020, in the heart of the COVID pandemic, early votes accounted for over 91% of total votes.
Looking ahead, the election services department is preparing for a higher number of voters for the general election this November.
