One person was arrested after a heated day at the state Capitol. Crowds packed a Monday morning hearing about the long lines voters experienced during last week's presidential preference election.
The man arrested on Monday has been identified as 23-year-old Jonathan McRae, of Paulden.
McRae was taken into custody for resisting arrest, aggravated assault against an officer and criminal trespassing. He was released from jail late Tuesday morning.
According to court records, McRae was "yelling and causing a disturbance in the gallery of the House of Representatives building."
Police say he was asked to leave by capitol security guards, and he refused. A DPS sergeant says he also asked McRae to leave four times, and McRae said he would not leave.
"Troopers went to remove the subject when he grabbed a chair in the gallery and held onto it," according to a court document.
Video shared on social media and provided to ABC15 showed officers subduing McRae and carrying him away as others protested and videotaped the incident.
@abc15 Here's where safety pin came from-tail pinned to shorts.Surely was pulled off when mobbed by officers. pic.twitter.com/g93YquLHT0
— Stacey Champion (@ChampPR) March 30, 2016
"We are all here for the same purpose, democracy," said Ryan Gero. He suggested the state enact same-day voter registration as a reform.
Dean Palmer explained the hours-long wait at his Glendale polling location.
"Then came the sprinklers. The people in wheelchairs, they got hosed," Palmer said.
Several hundred people attended the hearing, and some groups protested on the State Capitol lawn beforehand.
Purcell also addressed the committee, after being coaxed to the podium by the chairwoman. For the first time, Purcell explained the math behind the decision to reduce polling places to 60 locations.
"I made a giant mistake," Purcell said.
Purcell underestimated turnout. She supplied a chart saying they expected 71,000 in-person voters, based on historical voting behavior and the large number of mail-in ballot voters. In reality, 107,000 voters turned out Tuesday, including provisional ballot voters and mail-in ballot recipients who chose to vote in person instead.
