How Many People Voted in Tuesday’s Primary Election?

It certainly wasn’t the weather, which couldn’t decide between Africa hot and India monsoon, but voters turned out in respectable numbers for the Aug. 14 Primary Election Day in Hillsborough County.

Voters cast 111,510 votes in Tuesday’s election, which represented 15.8 percent of the registered populace. Only 10 percent of registered voters participated in the 2008 primary election.

Heavily contested Republican primaries, including the District 24 face-off between Republican state Senate candidates Rachel Burgin and Tom Lee, helped draw voters to the polls.

“It could also be that parties energized their voters or voters were just more energized themselves this time around,” said Travis Abercrombie, a spokesman for the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office.

With few problems reported at the polls, the election also proved to be one the quickest and smoothest in recent memory, which bodes well for the general election in the fall, Abercrombie said.

“It’s a great lead-in to the General Election,” he said. This gives us more confidence that the processes we are using are efficient and will work well.”

Hillsborough Republicans would have liked to see a higher turnout at the polls.

“The turnout was respectable but we were hoping for it to be higher,” said Emma J. Runion, secretary of the Hillsborough County Republican Party. “We believe November will be a much higher turnout.”

Runion is probably on the money. Presidential election years usually turn out voters en masse.

In 2008, the year 15.8 percent of the voters showed up for the Primary Election, 73.56 percent of that Hillsborough County populace cast ballots in the General Election later that year.