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Demographic changes
Results in Arizona depended on Maricopa County, the fourth most populous county in the nation with 4.5 million residents, including 1.4 million Hispanics.
The county voted closely for Donald Trump in 2016. But its demographics and politics have changed in the last four years. Biden led Trump between 49% and 47% in Arizona in a Reuters Ipsos poll conducted from October 27 to November 1.
Arizona’s 11 electoral votes could be key on Biden’s path to victory, and Democratic strategists hoped that increased Latino turnout would help turn the state in his favor.
Early voting
Maricopans participated in early voting in record numbers. By Monday, the county had processed 1.66 million ballots, surpassing the total of 1.6 million cast in the 2016 election, said Megan Gilbertson, communications director for the Maricopa County Elections Department.
While Maricopa gave Trump the majority of his votes in 2016, he ousted Republican Sheriff Joe Arpaio, an immigration hardliner whom Trump pardoned for ignoring a court order to stop racial profiling of Latinos. Since then, the county has helped elect the likes of Krysten Sinema, Arizona’s first Democratic senator in three decades, to national office.
