Live news on Trump, Biden and the presidential election
A school crossing guard stops cars for voters entering a polling station, on Tuesday in Phoenix.
PHOTO:
Matt York/AP
Arizona’s Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix, is eyeing its highest voter turnout in 40 years.
The county has already seen 115,000 votes today, and is expecting to reach 200,000 in-person votes by the time the polls close, according to Maricopa County Elections Department spokespeople Diana Solorio and Megan Gilbertson.
If Maricopa County hits 200,000 votes, that means they’ll have 80% turnout, when you combine all the early votes, mail votes and Election Day votes. That hasn’t happened in Maricopa County since 1980. (The highest turnout the county has ever reached was 87% in the 1960s, according to Gilbertson.)
So far, Solorio says in-person voting has been very smooth and the call center has seen only “typical complaints,” nothing major.
Maricopa County is the fastest growing county of any county in the US, according to the US Census, and Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the country.
While GOP strongholds in the county have continued to see a high number of in-person voters, a Democratic source who is in the Democrats’ Arizona “boiler room” says Democrats came into Election Day with strong early turnout in Maricopa County.
“Obviously there will be a big (Republican) turnout today, but I think we will be able to withstand it,” the source said.
In traditionally blue Pima County, which includes Tucson, early vote totals by party registration gave Democrats about a 75,000 vote edge coming into Tuesday, with 195,756 votes to 120,595 for the GOP, according to data provided by the Pima County Recorder’s office.
“The GOP usually has a better turnout by percent,” said Alison Jones, chair of the Pima County Democrats. “Our turnout been much better than normal in early voting.” She said that while she expects Republicans to make up ground at the polls today, “Even if every GOP voter votes for Trump — and we know that’s not the case … we have a clear path with the independent votes to take this state.”
Statewide, in Arizona, Republicans account for 35.2% of registered voters, Democrats for 32.2% and independent and other voters for 31.7%.
