County echoes state in choosing Santorum in primary
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum takes away Pettis County bragging rights from Tuesday’s presidential preference primary, capturing 53 percent of GOP ballots cast.
With delegates to be decided by caucuses next month, voter turnout was decidedly low, with only 1,558 total votes cast, amounting to just over 6 percent of registered Pettis County voters.
Santorum captured 701 of 1,316 Republican cards, well ahead of presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney, who garnered 369 votes, or 28 percent.
Third place on the Republican ticket went to Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who took 143, or 11 percent of Tuesday’s GOP vote.
Although they have since left the race, GOP candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry both took 15 votes apiece, or 1 percent.
Herman Cain received 12 votes (.9 percent); Michael J. Meehan, a St. Louis real estate broker, received 6 votes (.5 percent); and Gary Johnson, now running as a Libertarian, received 3 votes (.2 percent). Forty-nine Pettis County Republicans (4 percent) cast uncommitted ballots on Tuesday.
Those numbers were on par with tallies seen statewide. With 55 percent of precincts reporting as of 9 p.m., Santorum was declared the projected winner of the Missouri contest with 57 percent of the vote compared to 26 percent for Romney and 13 percent for Paul.
On the Democratic ticket, President Barack Obama secured 183 of 234 total votes cast, representing 78 percent of the vote. Also on the Democratic ticket: Randall Terry, 13 votes (6 percent) Darcy G. Richardson, 6 (3 percent); and John Wolfe, 5 votes (2 percent). Twenty-seven Democratic voters opted to remain uncommitted.
James Orland Ogle took two (50 percent) of the four votes cast by Libertarian voters. One vote was cast uncommitted on the Constitution Party ballot, which featured no certified candidates.
Pettis County Clerk Nick La Strada called Tuesday’s vote a good beginning to a busy general election year.
“Things went really smooth today. We didn’t have any major issues or complaints. I think we have a really good team here and I’m looking forward to the next three elections,” La Strada said.
