Arizona’s majority voted blue this presidential election, for the first time since 1996. This led to Arizona becoming a swing state and ultimately assisting president-elect Joe Biden.
Arizona voters turned out in record-breaking numbers this election year, and are on track to set a new record for casted ballots.
According to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, on the morning of November 2, Arizona received 2.6 million early ballots for the presidential election. This number was nearly equal to the total number of ballots cast in the 2016 election.
This year, there are a total of 4,281,152 registered voters in Arizona, although the majority of voters are located in Maricopa County with 2,622,501 voters. However, when comparing these numbers to 2016, 2020 had a voter increase of 49.6%.
Registered voters in Arizona have continued to grow consistently since the 2000 presidential election, according to the Secretary of State.
One of the many reasons why there was a major increase in voter registration is most likely due to Americans believing that this election is more important than ever.
Silvia Lopez, a criminal justice major at ASU and downtown Phoenix resident said the topics of politics has changed across the country.
“It’s not just about politics anymore, it’s about our basic human rights and whether or not we’re going to fight for it,” she said. “With the current president, he puts the economy first and the new generation of voters wants to put human rights first.”
Out of these registered voters, roughly 3 million of them voted early and heavily voted by mail in 2020. Although there is typically a large number of early ballots in Arizona, it continued to grow this year. On October 17, 115,000 ballots were already processed and tabulated according to the Maricopa County Elections Department.
This year, it has been recorded that 1,508,778 of Arizona voters are Republican and 1,378,324 are Democratic. These parties are both substantially larger than 2016. Overall, there has been an increase in voter turnout within all political parties, including Independents.
Voter registration statistics are calculated and maintained by the Arizona Revised Statutes.
“A growing number of people use social media as their primary source for news and politics and that includes the large majority of the younger generation,” said Dardan Sahiti, a sophomore ASU student who falls under Gen Z.
He also said that believes voting could begin to become an activity that people do to conform to societal standards to fit in.
“I believe that seeing political dilemmas on social media get the youth riled-up to the point where they feel like they need to play a part in changing the political climate,” he said.
As numbers of voters grow in Arizona, so does the population which could also be a leading factor of growth in registered voters. In 2016, there were approximately 6.9 million Arizonans. It is projected that in 2020 there are currently about 7,286,000 people who make up the population.
Contact the reporter at smwitte@asu.edu
