Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson pointed to low voter turnout as a reason he did not make it out of the primary election.

Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson blamed his loss Tuesday on low voter turnout.

“I'm disappointed,” he said Wednesday. “I'm a little surprised but it was an extremely low voter turnout.”

The total voter turnout for the Butler mayoral and city council primaries was 22.01 percent, while the Republican turnout was 24.48 percent and the Democratic turnout was 19.7 percent.

Donaldson was defeated by Ben Smith, who won 372 votes to Donaldson's 223 and councilman Michael Walter's 98, based on unofficial results.

Smith will face Jamie Lee Goehring in November's general election.

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