•March 16, 2016•

Good voter turnout combined with new election equipment kept the Moultrie Country Clerk’s office pretty busy March 15.

County Clerk Georgia England noted the 410 absentee ballots voted in the general primary election broke recent records for primary elections, indicating voter interest in 2016.

New voting equipment prompted constant attention from Liberty Systems personnel as well as Election Deputy Jamie Helton and the election support staff as they fielded precinct issues throughout election day.

In Moultrie County’s 16 precincts 3822 ballots were cast out of 8362 registered voters. Of those, 2743 were Republican, 1066 were Democrat and 13 Nonpartisan. There were no local offices with contested races.

Brad Halbrook led the Republican race for Adam Brown’s seat in the 102nd Legislative District with 1482 votes, followed by James Acklin with 461 and Randy Peterson with 430 in the county.

The Republican contested 15th Congressional seat went to incumbent John Shimkus with 1519 over Kyle McCarter with 1048.

For president Bernie Sanders led the Democrats in the county with 566 votes; Hillary Clinton received 462 votes with Martin O’Malley getting 11.

Republican presidential hopefuls were led by Ted Cruz with 1321 votes followed by Donald Trump with 900. John Kasich was third with 264 followed by Marco Rubio with 141 votes.

Democrat U.S. Senate race was led by Tammy Duckworth with 611 votes, Andrea Zoppe-251 and Napoleon Harris-90.

Republican senate race was led by Mark Steven Kirk with 1764 followed by James Marter with 718.

In local uncontested races Republican incumbent State’s Attorney Jeremy Richey received 2242 votes with Coroner Lynn Reed receiving 2365.

County board candidates were led by Ron White with 1838; Tim Rose 776; Kevin McReynolds 1702 and Mike Barringer 1581.

Democrat State’s Attorney candidate Marvin L. Hanson received 880 votes and Circuit Clerk Cindy Braden 916.