Outcry Over Arizona Voter Suppression
Over the past two weeks, there have been articles, petitions, and general outcry about Arizona voter suppression in the state’s primary. In Arizona’s most populous county, the number of polling precincts was reduced from 200 to 60 this year. This resulted in voters having to spend hours waiting to cast their vote.
Consider: 2012 primary had 300,000 voters and 200 polling places. 2016 primary has estimated 800,000 voters at 60 polling places. #12News
— JOE DANA (@JoeDanaReports) March 23, 2016
At PHX polling site. 7:30pm: line is 3K+ long. Voters at front been waiting for 4+ hrs. #AZPrimary #WesternTuesday pic.twitter.com/hVXUKhNmgo
— Dylan Roberts (@DRobCO) March 23, 2016
“We the people ask for a revote of the Arizona primary due to voter suppression. Many registered voters who registered Democrat/Republican before the cut off or who have been registered Democrat/Republican for many years are being turned down due to the mislabeling of their registered party for the primary. We ask that this immediately be corrected and fixed and allow the residents of Arizona to participate in a revote for honest Arizona primary voting results.”
A recent article from IVN details the 1.2 million registered voters in Arizona who were not able to participate. These voters were barred from participating simply due to being registering as Independent. This bloc represents more than a third of all Arizona voters. Some Independent voters were not even aware of the participation ban, only to be turned away after hours of waiting in line. Others reported that they were registered as Democrats, only to be told that they were listed as ‘Independent’ or ‘No Party Listed’ in the voter database. There has even been a White House petition calling for a revote in the state due to the voter database discrepancies. At the time of writing this, the petition has 96,000 signatures.
The Arizona voting disaster is the most recent of a long list of voting discrepancies this election cycle. We should end the craziness and move to transparent, blockchain voting. At Follow My Vote, we are developing an open source, end-to-end verifiable voting system. Vote where you count, and sign up below for the 2016 Parallel Presidential Election. Help us make history in 2016.
About the author: Tyler Molihan is a Marketing Intern at Follow My Vote. He hopes to increase awareness about the benefits of online voting systems.
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