Fewer than half of the voters in Butler County showed up at the polls Tuesday.

When the last of the county’s 89 precincts came in just before 11 p.m., the result revealed a 45 percent turnout.

Shari Brewer, director of the county Bureau of Elections, accepted the news with an optimistic spin.

“It’s better than 17 (percent),” she quipped.

Of the 122,109 people registered to vote in the county, 55,021 voted.

The 45 percent turnout Tuesday is markedly down from the last midterm election.

By comparison, about 56 percent of voters cast a ballot in the 2010 election and about 57 percent did so in the 2006 midterm election.

“I have no clue what makes some people vote and others not,” Brewer said. “If we did, maybe we could change that.”

This year’s uncompetitive election almost certainly factored into relative voter disinterest.

Voters normally show up when a race is competitive, and this year’s governor race — the contest at the top of the ballot — was anything but.

Polls since the May primary all the way to Tuesday’s balloting consistently showed Democratic challenger Tom Wolf trouncing Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.

And as it turned out the polls weren’t crying wolf — Wolf won easily.

But in Republican rich Butler County, as expected, Corbett defeated his rival, getting nearly 64 percent of ballots.

While GOP Congressman Mike Kelly had a token challenge from Democrat Dan LaVallee in the 3rd District, four of five state House members were unopposed in districts that include the county.

Only 24 precincts in Butler County hit or topped the 50 percent mark in turnout. The precinct with the highest turnout was Valencia with 56 percent.

Butler Township 4 had the second-highest turnout at 54.7 percent followed by Adams Township 3 and Butler Township 3 at 53.8 and 53.7 percent, respectively.

Conversely, the precincts with the lowest turnout were: Butler City 3 at 23.7 percent; Slippery Rock Township at 25.2 percent and Slippery Rock at 27.6 percent.

In four of Butler’s six precincts in the city, turnout was less than 36 percent.