Jackie Hai/KJZZ

An "I Voted" sticker from Arizona's 2018 elections.

Voter turnout in Arizona has never reached higher than 80%, and that was nearly four decades ago — in 1980, a presidential election year.

And turnout is considerably lower in cycles that are focused on very localized issues, as we saw last month, when Phoenix voters cast ballots on pension reform and the future of light rail.

Commentator Paul Bentz, senior vice president of research and strategy for HighGround, said higher voter turnout is an important goal, but that shouldn’t devalue the decisions of those who actually “showed up.”

He joined The Show to talk about it.

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