Calls poured in to the Sedona Red Rock News on Tuesday, Feb. 5, from frustrated voters who tried to cast ballots in the Presidential Preference Election on “Super Tuesday.”
Nationwide, 24 states held primaries and caucuses to choose candidates among the front-runners of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Heavy turnout causes 90-minute lines to vote
Calls poured in to the Sedona Red Rock News on Tuesday, Feb. 5, from frustrated voters who tried to cast ballots in the Presidential Preference Election on “Super Tuesday.”
Nationwide, 24 states held primaries and caucuses to choose candidates among the front-runners of the Democratic and Republican parties.
Yavapai County’s combination of previously separate precincts resulted in traffic jams in Sedona that backed up onto Hwy. 89A.
Waits of longer than an hour were reported in the single polling place in West Sedona.
“This is an historically-significant election,” voter Patti Todd said. “It was a poor time to change a system that previously had worked well.”
Todd said the impact wasn’t limited to voters.
Volunteers working at the polling place were overwhelmed by the number of people who came out to vote, and some hadn’t had a break since they started at 5 a.m.
Other callers said they left without voting after unsuccessful attempts to get into the parking lot.
The problem occurred throughout the county, causing some reportedly testy exchanges between voters and volunteers in Sedona, Cottonwood and Clarkdale where voters were waiting more than 90 minutes to get to the head of the line.
A full report on what went wrong will be in the Friday, Feb. 8, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.
Among Democrats, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton won 51.8 percent of Arizona voters and 26 delegates, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won 42.7 percent and 21 delegates and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards [N.C.], who left the race Jan. 30, garnered 5.5 percent.
Among Republicans, Arizona’s native son, Sen. John McCain, won 47 percent of the vote.
Under Republican National Committee rules, McCain won all of the state’s 53 delegates.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won 34 percent of the vote, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won 9 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul won 5 percent and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also left the race Jan. 30, won 3 percent.
— Susan Johnson
Larson Newspapers
