Mayor Greg Stanton said Phoenix residents, a majority of whom are Latino or black, didn't have as much access to polling places as white communities.

Nancy Wiechec / Reuters

After thousands of Arizonans waited hours to cast ballots during Tuesday's presidential primary, the mayor of Phoenix called for a federal investigation into whether minority voters' rights were adequately protected. Mayor Greg Stanton requested an independent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice in a letter Wednesday into voting practices across Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix as well as surrounding suburbs. "Throughout the county, but especially in Phoenix, thousands of citizens waited in line for three, four, and even five hours to vote," Stanton said. "Many more could simply not afford to wait that long, and went home." In 2012, Maricopa County provided more than 200 polling locations for voters, the Arizona Republic reported. On Tuesday, only 60 polling places were open to the 1.25 million eligible registered voters in the primary election.



Matt York / AP

The change was billed as a cost-saving measure, but it appears to have disproportionately affected minority voters, Stanton, a Democrat, said. In Phoenix, where the majority of residents are Latino, black, or another minority group, one polling location served every 108,000 residents, he said. In Peoria, a city with a majority white population, one polling location was allocated for every 54,000 residents. Across the county, the ratio was one polling location per every 21,000 voters, the Republic reported. At one downtown polling location, the final vote was cast after midnight by a woman who arrived just as the poll closed at 7 p.m. Aracely Calderon, 56, told the Republic that voting was an important and emotional experience for her — she had in 2012 become a citizen after immigrating from Guatemala. "I'm going to go home very happy and satisfied because it really is a joy to be able to vote," she told the paper.