The primary elections for most offices in the state of Arizona, including most local and federal elections, will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2020.
However, in order to participate in the selection of presidential candidates that happens in the spring of a presidential election year, the state will also be holding its Presidential Preference Election on Tuesday, March 17.
Since the Republican, Libertarian and Green parties have all canceled their Arizona presidential preference elections, the only one occurring on March 17 will be the choice for presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.
In Arizona, the vote is closed by party, so voters must be registered as a Democrat in order to participate.
The deadline for voter registration to participate in the March 17 election is 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday. Feb. 18. This is also the deadline for switching parties to the Democratic Party if one is affiliated with a different party or independent but wants to participate.
Registration can be done online through ServiceArizona.com if voters provide the last four digits of their Social Security number and a valid Arizona driver’s license number along with residential and mailing addresses. In-person registration can be done at either of the Yavapai County recorder offices — 1015 Fair Street in Prescott or 10 S. Sixth St. in Cottonwood — either with a driver’s license number and SSN or with Documentary Proof of Citizenship.
Documentary Proof of Citizenship can either be the same combination of Arizona driver’s license and the last four digits of a Social Security number, or a series of other equivalent documents, including a copy of a birth certificate, a tribal ID number, an alien number or a U.S. passport.
“There are different ways of providing that information but in order to be a full valid Arizona voter, you have to provide Documentary Proof of Citizenship,” Yavapai County Registrar of Voters Laurin Custis said. “If a voter does not provide DPOC, they will be registered as a federal-only voter, and can only vote for federal offices.”
Federal-only voters can still participate in the presidential preference election and even get a mail-in ballot if they are able to prove their identity. To register for federal-only voting, voters are only required to provide name, address and date of birth. However, a federal-only voter still has to be able to prove identity at the polling site, through an official document showing their name.
According to Custis, of the more than 100,000 voters in Yavapai County, only 400 have registered as federal-only, and the county recorder’s office encourages people to register fully.
On Election Day, March 17, voters are allowed to go to any of the 25 vote centers in the county, regardless of where they live. All vote centers will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Early voting begins the day after the registration deadline, Feb. 19, and is permitted until March 13, either in person at one of the two recorder locations in Prescott or Cottonwood, or on a paper ballot mailed to those who have placed themselves on the early voter list. The county is encouraging people not to mail their early ballot to the county, but rather to drop it in one of the several drop boxes spread around the county.
In the Verde Valley, there are drop box locations at the Camp Verde Town Hall, the Yavapai- Apache Nation Community Center, the Clarkdale Town Hall, the County Administration Building in Cottonwood, the Jerome Town Hall and Sedona City Hall.
The county is also looking for volunteers to serve as poll workers on Election Day. Applicants can find information on the county recorder’s website at yavapai.us/govote.
According to Custis, the only real requirement is to be able to handle a whole 15-hour shift, as poll workers cannot switch out with someone else in the middle of Election Day.
