By Leah Justice

leah.justice@tryondailybulletin.com

Polk County saw an above average voter turnout for the Tuesday, March 15 primary election with 38.52 percent, which was slightly higher than the last couple presidential primaries.

Polk County’s voter turnout in the 2012 primary election was 36.06 percent. The presidential primary prior to 2012 was 2008 when Polk County saw a 36.77 percent voter turnout.

This year’s primary saw the majority of ballots cast for Republican races at 3,546, or 59.58 percent of the ballots cast, according to the Polk County Board of Elections unofficial results.

There were 2,379 Democratic ballots cast (39.97 percent of total ballots), 16 Libertarian ballots cast (0.27 percent of total ballots) and 13 nonpartisan ballots cast (0.22 percent of total ballots) in Polk County.

Polk County’s polling places saw similar voter turnout percentages on Tuesday and throughout early voting.

Columbus 2 had the highest turnout at 42.39 percent, with 1,044 ballots cast out of 2,463 registered voters, according to Tuesday’s unofficial results, which did not include in the breakdown of precinct voter turnout 73 county-wide curbside votes and a few absentee ballots yet to be returned.

Columbus 2 had 706 Republican ballots compared to 335 Democratic ballots.

The second highest voter turnout by percentage was the Tryon precinct, which saw a 41.78 percent turnout as of Tuesday’s numbers. Tryon has 3,121 registered voters and had 1,304 ballots cast. Of the total ballots, there were more Democratic ballots cast in Tryon with 680 compared to 612 Republican ballots cast.

The third highest voter turnout was in Saluda at 41.41 percent. Saluda has 1,536 registered voters with a total of 636 ballots cast. There were 358 Republican ballots compared to 276 Democratic ballots.

The fourth highest voter turnout was in Green Creek at 36.84 percent. Green Creek has 2,598 registered voters and 957 ballots cast for the primary. There were 594 Republican ballots compared to 363 Democratic ballots cast in Green Creek.

The fifth highest voter turnout by percentage was Coopers Gap, which has 1,526 registered voters. There were a total of 518 ballots cast, including 384 Republican ballots and 127 Democratic ballots.

The sixth highest voter turnout was Columbus 1 with 33.63 percent. Columbus 1 has 2,492 registered voters with 838 total ballots cast. There were 491 Republican ballots cast and 344 Democratic ballots cast.

The lowest voter turnout was in White Oak at 33.43 percent, just behind Columbus 1. White Oak has 1,714 registered voters with 573 ballots cast. There were 352 Republican ballots and 219 Democratic ballots cast.

Voter registration breakdown

There are currently 15,452 registered voters in Polk County with the most being registered as unaffiliated.

There are currently 5,448 registered Unaffiliated voters in Polk County, 5,343 registered Republican voters, 4,591 registered Democrat voters and 70 registered Libertarian voters. Of the total, 14,307 are listed as white, 738 are listed as black, 12 are listed as American Indian, 31 are listed as Asian, 44 are listed as multi-race, 158 are listed as other and 162 are listed as undesignated, according to the Polk County Board of Elections.

There are 1,282 more female registered voters in Polk County than males. There are 8,324 females registered to vote in Polk County, 7,042 males registered to vote and 86 undesignated registered to vote.