Floyd County had the eighth-lowest voter turnout in the state, Tuesday, and was one of 43 counties in which less than 10 percent of those eligible voted. Only one county in the state — Clinton — saw more than 40 percent of its voters go to the polls.
The very few Floyd County Democrats who bothered to go to the polls Tuesday gave a vote no confidence to President Barack Obama on Election Day, expressing a preference for “Uncommitted” over the incumbent president by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.
Of the 1,530 votes cast in the Democratic presidential primary, 972 went to “Uncommitted,” compared to 558 for President Obama.
Statewide, however, the result was almost the exact opposite. With 97.5 percent of the vote counted, Obama tallied 58 perrcent of the vote, compared to 42 percent for “Uncommitted.”
On the Republican side of the ballot, presumptive nominee former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney cruised to a victory over Rep. Ron Paul and two withdrawn candidates, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, both in Floyd County and statewide.
In Floyd County, Romney took 156 of the 228 votes cast, compared to 33 for Paul, 16 for Gingrich, 15 for Santorum and 8 for “Uncommitted.”
Across Kentucky, the percentages were nearly identical, with Romney taking 67 percent of the vote, compared to 12 percent for Paul, 9 for Santorum, 6 for Gingrich and 6 for “Uncommitted.”
In the only race with anything at stake on the ballot, the Fifth District U.S. representative contest, Kenneth S. Stepp, of Manchester, held on to a slim lead against his Democratic primary challenger, Michael Ackerman, by 1,264 votes. If the result holds, Stepp would take longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Hal Rogers in November.
Tuesday’s ballot held little of interest for voters, with less than 14 percent turning out across the state and less than half that percentage voting in Floyd County. In the Fifth District Congressional race, only 9 percent of registered Democrats cast votes across the district.
In Floyd County, only 1,849 of the county’s 29,808 voters went to the polls, although 705 voters were precluded from voting Tuesday, due to being registered independent or with a third party. Under the state’s closed primary system, only Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary, and only Republicans can vote in the Republican primary.
Without factoring in independent and third-party voters, Floyd County’s voter participation rate rises from 6.20 percent to 6.35 percent.
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