Voter Turnout Up Over 2004; More Demo Ballots Chosen
Posted
Tim Robertson-trobertson@timesuniononline.com
Kosciusko County voters turned out in higher numbers for Tuesday's primary elections than either of the past two primary elections.
According to an election summary report provided by the Kosciusko County Clerk's office, 16,750 of the county's 47,254 registered voters, or 35.45 percent, voted. Voter turnout was 20 percent in the 2006 primary and about 21 percent in 2004.
Kosciusko County Chief Deputy Clerk Ann Torpy said the higher turnout was expected."It's higher for a primary from what we're used to, but I wouldn't say it was higher than we expected," Torpy said.
She said the ongoing Democratic presidential primary race between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton was expected to draw higher numbers of voters to the polls.
Wayne Township Precinct 1 showed the highest percentage of active voters in the county with 43.94 percent (479 of 1,090 registered) voting Tuesday. Warsaw Ward 3 Precinct 3 had the lowest percentage with 11.11 percent (8 of 72 registered). Warsaw Ward 1 Precinct 1 recorded the highest actual number of voters voting with 517 of the precinct's 1,234 registered voters voting.
The county doesn't keep statistics on how many Democratic or Republican ballots are requested.
But vote totals from the presidential primary races in both parties indicate more Democratic ballots were cast than Republican.
According to the election summary report, 8,697 votes were cast in the race between Clinton and Obama.
There were 7,719 votes cast in the Republican primary in which John McCain has been recognized as the presumptive nominee. Voters in the Republican presidential primary voted for four different candidates, McCain, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney.
