Butler County's primary post-mortem fails to answer one question — how low can voter apathy sink?

The voter turnout Tuesday plummeted to its lowest level in years or maybe decades — or maybe ever.

"In my 44 elections," said Regis Young, director of Butler County's Bureau of Elections since 1988, "this is the lowest turnout that I can remember."

Armed with his own anecdotal evidence, the county's top Republican concurred.

"I went to 10 polling places during the day," said Art Rauschenberger, chairman of the Butler County Republican Committee. "I only bumped into one voter. That's when I knew the turnout was horrible.

"I don't remember it ever being this low."

Turnout countywide was 21 percent, according to unofficial results from the election office.

Among GOP voters, just 24 percent cast ballots. But even fewer Democratic voters — 17 percent of them — bothered to show up at the polls.

Why so few voters?

"There was just no interest anywhere," Young said. "And after the big November (presidential) election, people said, 'To heck with this primary.'"

Rauschenberger pointed to other factors.

"Voters probably didn't think they had many favorites on the ballot or controversial things to worry about," he said. "They didn't feel the need to turn out."

One thing you couldn't blame was the weather — or could you?

"I actually think good weather hurts turnout," Young said, "especially in the rural areas. "There's grass to be mowed and farms to tend to, and now's the time of year people are putting in gardens."

Dave Fowler, chairman of the Butler County Democratic Committee, was unavailable for comment after the polls closed.

Curing voter apathy is no quick fix, Rauschenberger conceded.

He said he believes schools — as well as the media — have much room to improve on teaching youths about democratic institutions and how they work.

"Maybe schools should be teaching kids at an earlier age about the importance of voting," he said.

Tuesday's primary, despite the dismal turnout, had one major bright spot — no serious hitches.

"We had just a couple machines with minor problems," Young said. "But since the turnout at those polling places wasn't big, we just shut them down."

Tabulating the votes, meanwhile, also was a breeze.

"We had them all counted and posted by 10:05 p.m., Young. "That's the earliest ever."