Early Voter Turnout Looks Bleak in GOP Primary Election

By all early indications, the number of Waukee residents turning out to vote in today's GOP Primary election was weak.

Around 4 p.m., an informal survey of four of the six voting precincts in Waukee found that less than 300 people had turned out to cast their vote in the GOP Primary election.

"Turnout has been kind of dismal," said Muriel Nizzi, a volunteer at . "Our precinct was cut by a third and others were added. I guess that's why we've seen so few people."

Voters to St. Boniface (precinct 5) had only numbered 26 just before 4 p.m.

Just down the street at (precinct 1), volunteers say traffic was "slow but steady" throughout the day. By 4:05 p.m. Tuesday, only 113 people out of 2,515 eligible voters in the precinct had cast their vote.

Volunteer Tammy Harderson said the line of steady traffic was eased by a new voting system that scanned in a person's drivers license to capture their voter registration information.

"It smooths things out a bit and really moves things along," said Harderson.

At the (precinct 6), volunteer Drew Gibson said only 30 people had turned out to vote by late afternoon. He attributed the low number to a confusion over the change in precincts.

"We've had to send more people to other precincts than have actually voted," he said.

Polls opened in Waukee this morning at 7 a.m. and will close at 9 p.m. tonight.

Election results will post as soon as they are available tonight on Waukee Patch.