Tuesday evening Utahans turned out en mass to vote in the Republican primary and the Democratic caucus. The turnout in some Salt Lake City voting locations was so great they ended up needing to print extra ballots, even sending volunteers out to buy extra reams of paper. Here in Southern Utah, voting lines often wrapped around buildings. Regardless of the state (Utah, Arizona, or Idaho), voters often faced a multi-hour wait to vote.
While some people expressed frustration at the long lines, many others were encouraged to see such a large turnout.
On the Republican side, Sen. Ted Cruz beat the 50-percent-plus-one-vote needed to turn Utah into a winner-take-all state. At the time of publication, with 82 percent of Utah’s vote in, Cruz held a commanding 69 percent of the vote, guaranteeing him all 40 of Utah’s Republican delegates. Gov. John Kasich, who campaigned heavily in Utah during the final days leading up to the vote, came away with 17 percent of the vote for zero delegates. Cruz had expressed concern that Kasich’s refusal to leave the race might cost him the percentage of votes needed to claim all 
of Utah’s delegates. Had that been the case, Utah’s delegates would have been awarded proportionally, giving Donald Trump a chance to gain some delegates in the state. The anti-Trump groups, who spent millions in Utah hoping to stop Trump from getting any of Utah’s 40 delegates, came away with a moral and mathematical victory as Trump only received 14 percent of the vote and zero delegates. However, Trump didn’t leave the night empty-handed as he picked up all of Arizona’s 58 delegates.
For the Democrats, Sen. Bernie Sanders showed once again that he does better in states with open caucuses. Sander’s dominated in Utah pulling in 79.7 percent of the vote (with 82 percent of precincts reporting at the time of publication), which gives him at this time 18 of Utah’s 33 pledge delegates. Sanders also did well in Idaho where he also brought in around 80 percent of the vote. Secretary Hillary Clinton, who at the time of publication had earned 8 of Utah’s 33 pledge delegates, won big in Arizona where she came away with 57 percent of the vote (with 78 percent of precincts reporting at the time of publication) for 43 of Arizona’s 75 pledge delegates. Sanders gained 39 percent of Arizona’s vote for 27 pledge delegates.
