Cathleen Allison/Nevada Appeal Carson City Clerk/Recorder Alan Glover, Chief Deputy Elections Clerk Sue Merriwether and elections Deputy Clerk Sylvia Yasumoto work to tally votes Tuesday night.
Unlike most counties, which saw a very light primary turnout Tuesday, Carson City drew a better turnout than in 2004.
Counting early voting, absentee ballots and Tuesday's turnout, 37.67 percent of the capital's registered voters cast ballots in the primary.
Altogether, 8,347 of the 22,160 registered to vote did so.
In Douglas County, traditionally one of the top two or three counties in percentage turnout, Clerk Barbara Griffin said only 32.8 percent voted. That's 8,229 out of 25,088 registered.
"It may be the worst one I've ever seen here for a primary," said Griffin, who is accustomed to seeing more like two-thirds show up for the primary.
"Early voting turnouts were as low as they've ever been, and I knew at that point we weren't going to have a very pretty election," she said.
Glover said traffic in Carson's two polling stations was "steady all day" except for being a bit slow during the noon hour.
"It was a good mix," he said. "There were a lot of young people, first-time voters."
Glover had predicted a 36 percent turnout in the capital.
The turnout in Carson City and Douglas County was excellent compared to the state's largest counties.
In Washoe, 34,765 of 206,552 registered turned out. That amounts to just 16.8 percent.
In Clark, 102,274 voted early, by absentee ballot or on Tuesday out of 697,547 registered, about 16 percent.
Griffin said she believes the January caucuses took away a lot of interest because there were no presidential candidates on the primary ballot this year.
Both Glover and Griffin, however, said all that will change in November when the presidential contest will be at the top of the ballot.
• Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.