Arizona’s primary election on Tuesday was disastrous, especially for manyblack, Latino, and Native American voters. In Phoenix, people waited hours in line—some past midnight— to vote because the state closed 140 polling places that were open for the 2012 elections. Why would local election supervisors commit to so many closures during one of the most electrifying presidential elections in decades?
Helen Purcell, Maricopa County’s director of the Office of Records, who made that decision, said she was trying to save money, and also that she didn’t expect that many voters would turn out. This miscalculation has triggered an investigation into her office by Arizona Secretary of the State Michele Reagan, who said the long waiting lines were “completely unacceptable.”
Former Maricopa County Attorney Barnett Lotstein, 74, called what happened straight-up “voter suppression” after he and his wife were denied opportunities to vote because they couldn’t stand for hours in line. Some voters had been waiting in line so long that they started ordering pizzas.
