text: People wait in line to vote in the primary Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in Chandler, Ariz. A document obtained from the Maricopa County Recorder's Office shows that five polling places in metro Phoenix still... (Associated Press) 
   
   PHOENIX (AP) — Gustavo Mendez waited four hours to vote in Arizona's presidential primary, marking his ballot just as poll workers brought out food for people stuck in line way past dark. 
   
   The 25-year-old looked forward to voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders, bringing his former girlfriend, who carried their young daughter, and a friend to line up at a west Phoenix church around 6 p.m. March 22. 
   
   After two hours, his fussy daughter and her mother had to leave. Mendez didn't vote for until just after 10 p.m. 
   
   "That's when they came in with food for people still there," said Mendez, who saw pizza boxes coming out as he made his exit. "We didn't expect it to take four hours." 
   
   His wait wasn't the longest. Some voters were forced to linger until 1 a.m. because of a steep cutback in polling places. 
   
   The Associated Press obtained a document from the Maricopa County Recorder's Office that shows the time each of the 60 polling sites closed, providing a more complete picture of the painstaking lines voters experienced outside churches, recreation centers and other locations. 
   
   Maricopa County, with its 2 million registered voters, had 200 polling places in the 2012 presidential primary and 400 in 2008. 
   
   The last polling place closed at 12:58 a.m., meaning the final voters had to wait nearly six hours. The polls officially closed at 7 p.m., but anyone in line at that point was allowed vote. It was one of five places that stayed open past midnight. In all, people were still voting at 10 p.m. or later at 20 out of 60 locations in the county. 
   
   The document is among those the U.S. Justice Department is seeking as it investigates a complaint by the Phoenix mayor that the election disproportionately affected minority voters. 
   
   A letter from the department released Monday by the recorder's office asked for information on 10 specific items, including a description of how election officials determined how many polling places were needed and whether potential effects on minority voters were examined. 
   
   The department declined further comment on its inquiry. 
   
   The frustrating waits come after the Arizona Legislature slashed funding last year for counties to carry out the presidential election. Election officials in Phoenix responded with scaled-back polling, citing a lack of money and the belief that people would vote by mail. 
   
   Despite the investigation, Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan on Monday certified results of the presidential primary, which Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won. 
   
   As the state's top election official, Reagan didn't have the ability to reject the official canvass from the 15 counties, despite acknowledging problems that led some voters to be incorrectly left off rolls. The certification does, however, clear the way for any possible court challenges. 
   
   Reagan said her office and the Legislature may consider proposed changes in the way counties run future elections. Such changes previously required federal approval, but a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision threw out that portion of the Voting Rights Act. 
   
   Reagan has sidestepped questions about why she didn't review the changes in the presidential primary herself in the absence of federal oversight since the other parts of the law remain in force. 
   
   Her certification of the results opens a five-day window for a challenge, something an attorney for Sanders is considering. Attorney Chris Sautter said last week that there was evidence an unknown number of voters had their ballots thrown out because of problems with voter rolls. 
   
   "What's at stake are delegates," Sautter said. "Obviously, the outcome of the election for the primary is not going to be changed, but delegate counts could be changed." 
   
   Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton, but because Democrats allow delegates to their national convention proportionally, challenging the results could add to Sanders' numbers. The state has 10 superdelegates and 75 at-large allocated in the primary. 
   
   Sautter is a veteran election attorney who was in Florida throughout the 2000 presidential fiasco, saying the Arizona "election is pretty close to as bad as that one." 
   
   ___ 
   
   Associated Press writer Terry Tang contributed to this report. ||||| The Latest on long lines at polling places during Arizona's presidential primary (all times local): 
   
   4 p.m. 
   
   Arizona's top election official has certified the results of the March 22 presidential primary despite ongoing concerns that long lines and other problems may have affected people's right to vote. 
   
   Secretary of State Michele Reagan certified the official canvass Monday and said she had no authority to do anything except sign off on the election. 
   
   She says anyone who wants to sue over the results now has five days to file a court challenge. 
   
   Maricopa County records show that five polling places in metro Phoenix still had voters in line after midnight, including one location where the final ballot was cast at nearly 1 a.m. 
   
   The U.S. Justice Department is inquiring about the lines and other problems to evaluate whether the largest county in the state complied with voting rights laws. 
   
   ——— 
   
   2:10 p.m. 
   
   The U.S. Justice Department is inquiring about long lines and other problems seen during Arizona's presidential primary to evaluate whether the largest county in the state complied with voting rights laws. 
   
   Maricopa County records show that five polling places in metro Phoenix still had voters in line after midnight, including one location where the final ballot was cast at nearly 1 a.m. 
   
   The Maricopa County Recorder's Office on Monday released a letter it received from federal law enforcement officials. 
   
   Justice Department Voting Section Chief Chris Herron asked for information on 10 specific items including a description of how county election officials determined how many polling places were needed on March 22 and whether potential impacts on minority voters were examined. 
   
   Citing budget issues, Maricopa County cut the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to just 60 this year. 
   
   ——— 
   
   11:30 p.m. 
   
   Records show 20 of the 60 polling places in Arizona's largest county still had people waiting in line to vote in the state's presidential primary more than three hours after the polls officially closed. 
   
   The records obtained by The Associated Press from the Maricopa County Recorder's Office also show five polling places saw their last ballot cast more than five hours after the 7 p.m. poll closing. One north Phoenix location saw its last voter just two minutes before 1 a.m. 
   
   Fourteen of the 20 sites were in Phoenix or its western suburbs, while six were in the eastern part of the Phoenix metro area. 
   
   The breakdown illustrates the extent of problems at the March 22 elections, which saw thousands wait for hours to cast a ballot. 
   
   Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan is expected to certify Monday that Democrat Hilary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump won their party's election. 
   
   ——— 
   
   3:10 a.m. 
   
   Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan is set to certify results of the March 22 presidential primary that prompted lines of more than five hours after Maricopa County slashed the number of polling places. 
   
   Reagan is the state's top election official and will officially release the statewide vote courts and is expected to certify the results on Monday. 
   
   The official canvass will trigger an opportunity for candidates or individual voters to challenge the results. Lawyers for Democrat Bernie Sanders are considering whether a challenge is possible. Sanders' supporters believe he might gain additional delegates to the Democratic convention because many provisional ballots were thrown out in Maricopa County, but any challenge is legally difficult. 
   
   Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump won statewide.
target: – Long lines at polling sites in Arizona's March 22 primary led Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton to call the night a "fiasco"—and the Justice Department to now investigate whether there were civil rights violations regarding what Stanton called "unacceptably disparate distribution of polling locations," Reuters reports. The DoJ's civil rights division penned a letter Friday asking Maricopa County, the state's most populous, to determine if federal law was violated regarding, among other things, the number and location of polling sites (the county cut them from 200 to 60 in 2012 in an apparent bid to save money). The Justice Department's reason for this request: reports of "disproportional burden in waiting times … in some areas with substantial racial or language minority populations," the letter noted. Those waiting times were incredibly inconvenient: The AP notes that some voters waited nearly six hours, with the last vote cast at almost 1am at one site; polls had closed at 7pm, but voters already in line at that point were allowed to cast ballots. Poll workers even reportedly brought pizza to hungry voters. Maricopa County has until April 22 to respond to the DoJ's letter, which included 10 specific requests for information, including polling locations, procedures, and response to public backlash, the Arizona Republic reports. "We are going to gather the information … and we will make it public," the county elections director says. Despite these issues, Arizona's secretary of state certified the primary results on Monday, calling it for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, per the AP. (Here's hoping Wisconsin's big night Tuesday goes more smoothly.)