| Santorum carries OC | | Posted: Wednesday, March 7, 2012 9:34 pm
| By CHRIS MENEES
Staff Reporter
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum was Obion Countians’ overwhelming choice in Tuesday’s Republican presidential primary election.
Santorum also claimed victory statewide in Tennessee’s Republican primary with his platform of social and religious issues that appealed to conservative voters. He had made appearances in the state before the primary, often in religious settings.
The election turnout was low Tuesday in Obion County, with a total of just 2,558 ballots cast from among the county’s 20,554 registered voters.
Of those, 2,335 were Republican ballots and 223 were Democratic, according to the Obion County Election Commission.
Among the Republican candidates, Santorum led the way in Obion County with a total of 1,153 votes. He was followed by Newt Gingrich with 544, Mitt Romney with 463 and Ron Paul with 139, according to unofficial totals. (See related election graph, Page 19.)
Other GOP candidates who received votes locally included Michele Bachmann with six, John Huntsman with two, Rick Perry with six and Charles “Buddy” Roemer with four. Gary Johnson did not receive any votes in Obion County and there was one write-in. Seven people voted as uncommitted.
In the Democratic primary, incumbent Barack Obama received 169 votes in Obion County.
Tuesday’s unofficial results showed 47 Democrats voted as uncommitted and there were four write-in votes locally.
Voters also had the opportunity to cast their ballots for several of a number of delegates on the Republican ballot.
The unofficial totals from the Obion County Election Commission included results from the 12 local voting precincts, as well as early and absentee voting totals included in the precinct totals. An election summary and a breakdown by precinct are both available online at www.obioncountyelection.com.
Obion County administrator of elections Leigh Schlager said Tuesday’s balloting went very smoothly. The polls had opened at 8 a.m. and closed at 7 p.m. All of the election equipment and voting data was returned to the election office in Union City by 8 p.m. and all of the data was uploaded to the election commission’s website by 8:05 p.m.
Staff Reporter Chris Menees may be contacted by email at cmenees@ucmessenger.com. Published in The Messenger 3.7.12 | | | | |
