By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Tuesday's primary election in St. Joseph saw a light turnout, which was expected by Buchanan County officials.
Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack Garvey says she predicted voter turnout around 15%. Buchanan County saw just under 19% of voters come to the polls.
Baack Garvey understands the low turnout could be seen as dissapointing.
"Well we always want the turnout to be higher than expected, and it was, but for a local election like this you would hope it would be at least in the 30's or 40%." But still, Baack Garvey says she's pleased with the turnout.
Baack Garvey says that primary elections generally see a low turnout, which is reflected when you look back just four years ago to the last primary election.
"Four years ago they almost hit 16% so, these local primaries seem to hit in the teens as a trend," Baack Garvey says.
Baack Garvey says now she will begin to turn her attention to the April 5th general election, citing her formula for coming up with her prediction for voter turnout.
"Well we've got to see how the absentee's are going, let's see who comes in to vote in person, we kind of trend it on that," Baack Garvey says. "And then I also base it off what happened maybe four years prior, so that's kind of the formula I use and I stick to it."