Otoe County voters set a new low mark for voter turnout in the May primary election.
Of the county’s 10,771 registered voters, 2,022 cast ballots for a turnout of 18.7 percent.
Election Commissioner Janene Bennett previously reported that the lowest voter turnout in her 25 years at the post was 20 percent in the May 2002.
A total of 7,494 voters stayed away from the polls in 2002, while 8,749 did not vote this year.
Turnout by party was 1,404 Republicans, 26 percent; 546 Democrats, 16 percent; and 72 nonpartisans, 3 percent.
Clayton Christiansen, student at Southeast Community College, said there were no particular issues that drew him to the polls, but he wants his vote to count on the Democratic ballot.
“I’m 19 years old and, when it comes to primary elections, it’s really the retirement age that gets out to vote. I feel we need a young person to counter that,” he said.
After 51 years voting in the Democratic Party primary, Don and Pat Ramold of Nebraska City cast ballots for the first time Tuesday as Republicans.
“I was a little tired, first of all, of all the terrible corruption at the top,” Pat Ramold said. “I know we have great people here, but I felt like it was time to make a statement and change parties,” she said.
Ramold said she the abortion issue and her concern about the United State’s economic future were behind her decision.
“I really worry about the government borrowing so much money. We owe too much to foreign countries,” she said.
Deb Orndorff said three county board candidates on the Republican ballot was interesting to her, but she was primarily motivated by any chance to vote.
“It’s my duty and my right,” she said.
Richard James, a Nebraska City Republican, agreed.
“I always vote because it’s the American thing to do. It’s a given right that you should not take for granted,” he said.
Donna Bohling, who is questioning her party affiliation, voted at Talmage with thoughts of the military. Her nephew has been deployed overseas to Bosnia and Iraq and is now heading to Afghanistan.
“If the military can do all it does for us, the least I can do is vote,” she said.
