Bernie Sanders slams Arizona primary "disgrace"
SAN DIEGO Bernie Sanders called it a "disgrace" that some voters had to wait in line for hours to vote in Tuesday's Arizona primary.
"In the United States of America, democracy is the foundation of our way of people," Sanders said at a press conference here Wednesday. "People should not have to wait five hours to vote. And what happened yesterday in Arizona is a disgrace. I hope that every state in this country learns from that and learns how to put together a proper election where people can vote in a timely manner and then go back to work."
Sanders, who lost the Arizona primary to Clinton by 57 percent to 39 percent, suggested that the voters who walked way could have made a difference in the final results.
"We do not know how many thousands of people who wanted to vote yesterday in Arizona did not vote. We don't know if they wanted to vote for Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or whoever," he explained.
Voting issues side, losing Arizona was a major blow to the Sanders campaign as they significantly outspent Clinton in both time and money spent there. In the three days leading up to the primary, Sanders had events all over the state. He also took a trip to the border in a bid to highlight his support for comprehensive immigration reform.
Clinton, meanwhile, was taking a break from the campaign trail.
Sanders could not explain why his campaign came up short in the state, noting that he has not yet seen exit polls. He did say that turnout was "significantly less" than they had expected. Just over 400,000 voted in the Arizona Democratic primary, less than the state's Democratic primary turnout in 2008.
Sanders, however, did walk away with victories in Utah and Idaho - he won both states with 70 percent of the vote and will pickup a combined 64 delegates from Tuesday's contests. And even though Sanders still trails his opponent by more than 300 pledged delegates and is widely expected to lose the Democratic nomination, he insists his campaign will continue.
"We had a very positive night," Sanders told reporters. "We continued a series of post March 15 elections where we have now won three out of four contests."
Sanders closed the press conference by saying that if he had "lost Arizona to the degree she lost Utah or Idaho it would be devastating." He said that due to the campaign's oft-stated primary goal, which is to pickup the largest number of delegates possible.