Low turnout for primary election no indication of what’s to come for the general

The votes have been cast in Gila County’s primary election and with the exception of one race, the results are in and despite the low turnout, County election officials are preparing for the possibility of a record-breaking vote in November.

“A lot of the times the primary election, especially in a gubernatorial cycle, and even sometimes in the presidential cycle, can have low turnouts, so it’s not out of the norm for us,” says Elections Director Eric Mariscal. “We’re planning for high turnout in the general because there’s a lot of propositions on the ballot that are going to be some touchstones for a lot of people.”

He added that there will also be “controversial” races, including school boards and a presidential race that most residents are deeply passionate about.

Overall, there was a 43.33% voter turnout for the primary, with 66.73% of registered Republicans and 45.82% of Democrats casting votes. Other parties included Libertarian, 22.22%; Green, 4.76%; No Labels, 8.78% and Nonpartisan at .81%.

Mariscal says those results, in part, are due to a dearth of non-Republicans in any of the races and historical voting trends in Gila County.

There are 39 precincts with a total of 33,109 voters in the county, 15,968 registered Republicans and 7,765 Democrats. There are 9,000 Nonpartisan voters and the remaining party affiliations total less than 500 registered voters. A vast majority of voters also chose early voting: Out of 11,814 early ballots cast, 8,567 Republicans and 3,163 Democrats opted for early voting. Election day votes totaled 2,485 with 47 total provisional ballots.

Locally, Globe City Council will not change as all three candidates, Mayor Al Gameros and Councilmen Freddy Rios and Michael Pastor, ran unopposed. Likewise the makeup of the Gila County Board of Supervisors will remain, as Tim Humphrey, Woody Cline and  Steve Christensen will all maintain their seats.

The Town of Miami, on the other hand, will see the biggest change locally, as longtime Councilman Mike Black’s 16-year tenure will end. Councilman Sammy Gonzales was re-elected, but there will be two new councilmen, longtime Miami resident Ray Webb and Miami native Gil Madrid.

Representative David Cook lost his bid to represent local Republicans in the State Senate race for District 7 to Wendy Rogers, who will go against Miami native Roberto Reveles in November.

Given the small number of voters in the county, many of the races can be decided by a handful of votes or can lead to a landslide.

In Hayden, Mayor Dean Hetrick was elected with 98 of the 100 votes cast, while in the Town of Payson, the only race in the county that will require a recount, the mayoral race between Chris Higgins and Stephen Otto saw a total of 5,750 votes cast with 2,923 going for Otto, 50.83%, and 2,817 for Higgins, 48.99%.

Payson City Council was even closer with six candidates—Charlie Bell; Dallin Haws; Craig Howard; Scott Nossek; Guy Pfister and Barbara Underwood—all within a few votes of each other.

Initial results showed that Haws and Nossek were in a tie with 2,573 votes each and the lowest vote-getter being Howard with 2,497 votes.

As a result, Mariscal says, his office must run several tests on its voting machines, but the results will not be done in time for the August 12 deadline for counties to canvass—or verify—their returns (after GMT press time).

Other than Payson, all of the other County races are in the books, with some decided and others setting the stage for what promises to be an historic election in a few short months.

Mariscal says tensions have been high and the County has had to increase security and he regularly receives questions or accusations based on misinformation being pushed on social media.

In addition to the installation of security cameras in counting rooms, security doors have been added to the elections office and workers had sheriff’s escorts when they worked on election night or moved ballots.

There is also a Threat Liaison Officer that coordinates with the Arizona Counterterrorism Information Center to be prepared to intercede should there be any potential issues or problems.

“So far so good,” Mariscal says. “There are always going to be people upset about stuff, but right now it’s business as usual, but we’re hoping to keep that trend going in November, and we can get in and out of that one too.”

In the wake of shake-up of elections offices throughout the country in the wake of the 2020 presidential election and threats of violence against election workers and officials, the Department of Justice set up an Elections Threats Task Force in order to “uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights.”

Mariscal has worked for Gila County Elections since 2007 and has led the department since 2013, so he has been through many elections in his professional life.

While much of the criticism he has received in the past few election cycles has been mild, he says that the majority of it comes from people who don’t fully understand Arizona’s election laws or processes.

“The biggest thing that kind of cracks me up is, in those previous elections, all their candidates won in Gila County,” Mariscal says. “So what exactly did we do wrong? I mean, the candidates they wanted to win, won.”

Be that as it may, Mariscal and his staff and volunteers soldier on to ensure Gila County elections are free, fair and secure for all citizens and the office is preparing for a huge turnout, possibly historic and more than 75% turnout.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen November 5, but I know on November 6 half the people are going to wake up throughout the country and they’re going to be upset about one thing or another,” Mariscal says. “Once we get there and it’s done, hopefully, we’ll just take a look at it, digest it for a little bit, and maybe say something. But hopefully we’ll just let the better angels of our nature take over, and we’ll just keep going.”