Lyon County Democrats came out in larger numbers than they had in years for an election watch party at Democratic headquarters.
“We’ve had a very good turnout tonight, but what’s significant is that we’ve had them from every part of the county ... and from the south part of town to the north part of town,” said party leader Jerry Karr.
The crowd had begun to dwindle temporarily, as some left headquarters to travel to Topeka.
“People are starting to leave for Topeka because of the governor and the attorney general race,” he said.
The Associated Press had declared Kathleen Sebelius winner of the gubernatorial race early in the evening, and the attorney general’s race had Democratic challenger Paul Morrison leading incumbent Phill Kline by a substantial margin in the early count.
“Some of the young Democrats have already left,” Karr said.
Karr was pleased with the early results in the 1st District County Commission race, which showed Democrat Scott Briggs leading Republican Ken Bazil, though Karr said that many votes remained to be counted in that race.
“Once we get some rural precincts in, we’ll have a better idea of where we’re going,” Karr said.
Fremont and Jackson townships both had strong voter turnout this year, and he predicted that Reading precinct, though small, would do likewise.
“I think they have 300 voters, but they’ll have 299 turnout,” he said, adding that Admire seemed to have posted about 60 percent of its registered voters.
The turnout, and the strength of the Democratic candidates, were in part the result of a concerted effort to bring voters to the polls.
“We worked hard on the college vote,” Karr said. “We also tried to get people who’ve dropped out of the voting. ...We had some pretty good success in our target areas. If I’d had more time, more people, I’d have done more.”
Karr speculated that local government issues energized voters, “particularly in this off-year election.”