McCain, Clinton win Yuma County preference election

Yuma County election trends largely mirrored the rest of the state among Republicans in Tuesday's presidential preference election, with Arizona's own Sen. John McCain winning his party's support while New York Sen. Hillary Clinton took the lead for the Democrats.

As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, with all nine of the county's voting precincts reporting, McCain had secured more than 2,600 of the more than 6,000 Republican votes cast.

Mitt Romney came in second place with more than 2,000 votes. Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul finished third and fourth, respectively.

Clinton led among Yuma Democrats with more than 3,600 of the more than 6,000 ballots cast. Barack Obama finished a distant second, with almost 1,600 local votes. Despite being out of the presidential race, John Edwards managed to get the third-most votes about 600.

More than 12,000 votes were cast on election day and through ballots submitted via early voting.

The candidates have concentrated their Arizona campaigning on the major urban areas in Maricopa and Pima counties but their volunteers worked to drum up Yuma support.

Arizona state Sen. Amanda Aguirre, D-Yuma, has spoken out for Clinton. She said the New York senator's past experience won her support.

"I think that Hillary Clinton has demonstrated through the years that she's a hard-working woman. She stands for issues like health care for the uninsured, and also children's issues," Aguirre said.

Teri Boothby spent Tuesday working local Democratic headquarters and the streets of Yuma on Obama's behalf. She said she's usually cynical about politics but Obama motivated her to get involved.

"The whole Obama message is, if you believe, you need to be out there," Boothby said.

Clinton's supporters were out there as well on Tuesday. Richard Dominguez cast his vote for the former first lady at Yuma's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Neighborhood Center. He said her views on immigration secured his vote.

"I like what she stands for," Dominguez said. "I hate to be stopped and be questioned, when I was born here."

Republican voter Trevor Swenson cited the economy as his primary motivation for voting. He said it's the most important issue in the country right now - and Romney would be the best candidate to handle it.

"I think that he has the best experience as a businessman," Swenson said.

Election results are unofficial until canvassed later by the Yuma County Board of Supervisors

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ROBUST TURNOUT

Voting numbers in primary elections tend to be low, but turnout was up across the nation this year and Yuma County was no exception.

"We had a very robust turnout," said Kevin Tunell, county public and legislative affairs director.

Tunell said they knew voter turnout was higher than in the 2004 presidential primary, though figures on exactly how much higher it was were not available on election night.

But even though turnout was up comparable to previous primaries, it still remained relatively low. Only 26 percent - or slightly more than 12,000 - of registered Republicans and Democrats cast their ballots in the preference election.

Tuesday night's voting totals included both votes cast at the polls and early ballots, though it did not include provisional ballots.