76 percent of county cast votes

By Krystal J. Carman The Claremore Daily Progress Wed Nov 05, 2008, 10:49 AM CST

November 5, 2008 — More than 76 percent of Rogers County registered voters took part in Tuesday’s general election.

At times, various polling places around the county saw more than 1,500 voters at one time.

“We were all swamped,” Rogers County Election Board Secretary Teri Thomas said Tuesday night. “I am anxious to see the percentage of voter turnout. It’s going to be really high.”

Although the election board telephones sounded a constant ring with voters who had questions and polling places saw lines of voters that stretched out the door and beyond, Thomas said there were no major flaws in Tuesday’s election.

“People were calling wanting to know where to vote — just normal questions on a big election day,” she said. “We didn’t have any big problems. Just the usual ones you see with big election issues.”

Out of 60,461 registered voters, more than 38,000 cast a ballot Tuesday — 76.9 percent of the county’s voters.

With the stakes high for four county races, several representatives for the candidates were on hand phoning in numbers as they were reported throughout the night.

Winners were Tad Jones, District 9 State Representative, with 62 percent; Scott Walton, Rogers County Sheriff, with 63 percent; Peggy Armstrong, Rogers County Clerk, with 66 percent, and Mike Helm, District 2 Rogers County Commissioner, 59 percent.

Four precincts reported after 8:20 p.m. Tuesday, including Oologah Masonic Lodge, Chelsea, First Baptist Church in Talala and Central Baptist Church in Owasso. At 8:25 p.m., Oologah Masonic Lodge election volunteers delivered their ballots with Chelsea volunteers arriving approximately 10 minutes later.

In the race for president, Rogers County voters went for John McCain, giving him more than 72 percent of the votes over Barack Obama. In Oklahoma, the voters backed McCain with 65.6 percent of the ballots, 959,808 votes to 502,329 for Obama.

In the statewide vote for U.S. Senate, Jim Inhofe won re-election. He received 763,102 votes. Andrew Rice received 527,569, and Stephen P. Wallace drew 55,683.

Oklahomans turned out in large numbers, but officials won’t know until later if a record was set.

The record vote in a presidential election was 1,463,758 in 2004.

“We’re going to come really close to having about the same number again,” said state Election Board Secretary Mike Clingman.

Clingman said officials had counted 1,460,271 votes late Tuesday, with about 1,800 ballots believed to be still out. He said a few hundred provisional ballots also are still to be counted and the final turnout numbers will not be known until Friday.

Text Only

Top Stories

Search Results

76 percent of county cast votes

On the eve of the new legislative session, Gov. Mary Fallin gives the State of the State address. She wants to initially lower the state income tax and eventually phase it out. Do you support her plan?

Site Map

Contact Us