Gunnison County sees huge primary turnout

Local results a bit different from state

Heated political contests and the ease of a mail-in ballot dramatically boosted the number of voters in Gunnison County during the primary elections held this past Tuesday. Unofficially, 2,278 voters cast their ballots this year. That compares to 757 ballots cast in the 2008 primary and 282 ballots in the 2006 primary election.

Gunnison County voters didn’t follow the trends in the state in every case. Democratic senate hopeful Andrew Romanoff actually garnered 58 percent of the county votes compared to 41 percent for Michael Bennet. Bennet trounced Romanoff statewide and will be the Democratic candidate in the November election.
Gunnison Republicans liked Scott McInnis for governor with almost 57 percent of them voting for the former congressman. But he lost statewide to challenger Dan Maes.
The local Republicans preferred Bob McConnell over Scott Tipton to challenge for the Third Congressional seat held by John Salazar but it will be Tipton on the November ballot and they voted 58 percent for Ken Buck over Jane Norton to run for U.S. Senate.
The county election crew did not break out the results by precinct.