Voter turnout for presidential primary extremely low

MOUND CITY – Linn County Clerk David Lamb reported to the commissioners on

Monday, March 25, that the voter turnout for the presidential preference primary on March 19 was very, very low.

Lamb said 7.2% of the total number of registered voters in Linn County cast a ballot. He noted that number included all voters, including Libertarian and unaffiliated voters who could not cast a vote. Unaffiliated voters could register as either Republican or Democrat at the polls.

However, counting total number of voters registered as Republican and

Democratic, the turnout was 10.62%. Combined, 581 county voters cast a ballot, with slightly more than 500 Republicans casting ballots and more than 70 Democrats voting.

Commissioner Danny McCullough asked what a typical turnout would be.

Lamb said that a big turnout would be up around 50% and probably will get

up to that later this year and maybe even beat that in the presidential election in

November.

Lamb told the commissioners that typically the city and school elections in the odd-numbered years have relatively fewer voters, but even for them the turnout will get closer to 20%.

“I don’t think that I have ever seen a turnout this low,” said Lamb.

Lamb reminded the commissioners that the election canvass would be at 9 a.m. on

Wednesday, March 27. Because of the low turnout and no write-ins on the election,

Lamb said it should be a very short process.