The expected rush to the polls and the anticipated lines of frenzied voters never materialized in Butler County — or across the state for that matter.

Still, as far as primaries go in the county, turnout Tuesday wasn't, well, as awful as it usually is.

"I figured it would be 15 percent higher than it was,"admitted Regis Young, director of the county Elections Bureau. "I was hoping for a better showing since it was such a nice day; maybe it was too nice.

"Maybe instead of voting, people decided to mow their grass and go golfing."

While a typical primary attracts one in four voters, this year turnout was 40 percent, according to unofficial election results.

Last year's primary turnout was about 27 percent. The 2004 presidential primary turnout in the county was 31 percent; in 2000 it was 23 percent.

Not surprisingly Tuesday, given the hotly-contested Democratic presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Democrats showed up in far greater numbers than Republicans.

<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE44191423.MOV" width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>Turnout among county Democrats was 57.8 percent, compared to 29.9 percent for Republicans.Across Pennsylvania, about 4 million eligible voters, about 50 percent, showed up.GOPvoters in the county lacked the enthusiasm of their Democratic counterparts largely, say election and political officials, because Republicans did not have a truly contested presidential race on their ballot.While Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee were listed on the ballot, John McCain for weeks has been the party's de facto nominee.There were few other choices for Republicans, including no opposition in either congressional district in the county."Actually,"said Art Rauschenberger, chairman of the county Republican Committee, "the Republican turnout was better than I expected."And in a twist, voters in southern portions of the county, especially in Cranberry Township, known for staying home, this time went to the polls.The impetus?Rauschenberger believed it was a lively and sometimes bitter race in the state House of Representatives' 12th District.Five-term Rep. Daryl Metcalfe defeated challenger Robin Redding, a one-time Metcalfe ally, by a comfortable margin of 62 percent to 38 percent, according to unofficial results."I had been hearing that Robin had a lot of support,"Rauschenberger said, "but the results show that you can't knock off in a few weeks an incumbent whose been in for 10 years."He said Metcalfe's showing demonstrated the incumbent's loyal following."He's got a strong base that helps his fundraising and turns out the vote," Rauschenberger said. "They like him, obviously."The 12th District includes the six precincts in Cranberry Township, which over the years have ranked at or near the bottom of the county's 85 precincts for voter turnout.Those Cranberry precincts in a typical primary average in the teens, in terms of percentile turnout; but Tuesday, the turnout at those polling places nearly reached 40 percent.Better still, more than half of all Democrats in Cranberry turned out at each of the precincts.Dave Fowler, chairman of the county Democratic Committee, did not return a telephone message left by the Butler Eagle.Karns City topped the county's precincts in turnout, with 57 percent, followed by Petrolia with 53 percent and Cherry Valley with 49 percent.Among Democrats, turnout was 66 percent in Valencia, 65 percent each in Karns City and in Butler Township 3.Republicans saw the best turnout in Petrolia, with 52 percent and in West Sunbury with 44 percent.The worst showing of the county precincts was in Adams Township 2, with a 28 percent turnout.Young reported few glitches in voting.Things went pretty smoothly,"he said. "There weren't many problems."Of the 487 touch-screen machines put in use, only two had to be repaired.Some voters complained about a lack of privacy; but Young said all voters had to do was pull up the sides of the machines.County election officials today will post the more than 1,300 absentee ballots with the unofficial vote tallies.By the end of the week or early next week, write-in votes will be tabulated.Young said there were numerous Democratic write-ins for Metcalfe and Redding in the 12th District, and for Republican state Rep. Brian Ellis and Democrat Dave Wilson in the 11th District.Ellis ran unopposed for the GOPnomination. Wilson had filed for the Democratic nomination but in March a Commonwealth Court judge ruled he did not collect enough eligible signatures to make the ballot.Acandidate needs at least 300 signatures to win the nomination by write-in.