Gainesville voters didn't procrastinate this year.
More people either voted early or sent in absentee ballots than in previous years. By about 6 p.m. Tuesday, the county had received about 70,000 absentee ballots, and about 6,000 people took advantage of early voting.
At the 69 precincts around the county, which were open for 12 hours, people weren't fighting to cast their votes, but Pam Carpenter, the county's supervisor of elections, said the day was slow and steady.
Primary elections usually draw about 25 percent of registered voters, she said.
"It has always been a puzzle why voters don't want to come out and vote for their state representatives," Carpenter said.
The three campus precincts - the Harn Museum of Art, the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts and the Reitz Union - had an especially low voter turnout.
"The students just came back to school and they weren't focused on the election," she said.
Santa Fe College students Jeremy Pierce and Donald Mickey were exceptions.
"Anyone who knows anyone unemployed should vote," said Pierce, a political science major. "We are the next generation, and what happens politically is going to affect students and what the job market looks like."
