The media villagers have been telling us for over a year now that Americans are angry, that there is a populist uprising against the establishment (Republicans in Arizona), and that they want to throw incumbents out of office. Revolution!
Since many races are decided in the primary, you would expect to see this populist uprising in the primary.
So let’s look at the numbers from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office (unofficial results 8/30/16) :
Registered Voters: 3,400,611
Ballots Cast: 822,400
Voter Turnout: 24% (only three counties exceeded 30%)
Voter turnout in 2014 was 27.02%, and in 2012 it was 28.09%. 2016 may be lower still.
There are several thousand ballots yet to be processed statewide, so the voter turnout number will go up slightly, but still — almost three-fourths of registered voters in Arizona could not be bothered to get off their rear-end and to take five minutes to fill out a primary ballot.
I’m guessing it’s fair to say that more Arizonans played that damn “Pokemon Go” game in the past month than took the time to vote early in this primary election. You have no one to blame but yourselves for the government you get.
This is how democracies die, from indifference and neglect.
Only one elected incumbent, Sen. Jeff Dial (R – LD 18), and two Democrats who had been appointed to fill a vacancy in the House, Rep. Matt Kopec (D – LD 9) and Rep. Celeste Plumlee (D – LD 26) lost their primary. So much for throw the incumbents out of office.
All the media hype about a populist uprising or revolution is total B.S. Arizona has always had low voter participation and continues to do so. The more things change, the more it stay the same.
NOTE: I am waiting for the final ballot counts before posting the list of candidates for the general election. There were some close races in legislative races.
Ehhh, when we had only three contested races in my district (Hey Pamela! Congrats!!!) and frankly, whoever won on the D side is getting my vote in November, there’s not the serious desire to get out and vote.
I did, of course, because I have to keep up the ‘ I Voted’ sticker count on my bike helmet 🙂 but there wasn’t a lot to draw people to the polls.
If ANYONE seriously expected Kelly Ward to challenge McCain I have a bridge in Lake Havasu to sell ’em 🙂
I expect that the turnout in November is going to be a wee bit higher …
Absolutely stunning. When I voted there was NO ONE there! (Catalina Foothills). I Was told that most now vote by early ballot!
I think that the revolution died when Bernie endorsed Hillary, when he abandoned Canova allowing DWS an easy win. I hope he enjoys seeing her in DC on regular basis. For me his abdication of the movement , dealt a huge blow and proved tat most politicians are just that POLITICIANS! Very sad indeed.
Very sad too that it does not look like we will flip the Senate in AZ this time and AZ will most likely remain as RED as ever and continue to elect idiots and bigots like Arpaio!