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Nearly one of every two registered Republican voters cast a ballot on Tuesday, resulting in a rate dwarfing the turnouts for the last two primary elections.

Turnout among GOP voters in two highly contested county races -- the bid for the District 3 Moffat County Board of Commissioners seat and Moffat County sheriff -- was about 47 percent. Two thousand one hundred seventy-eight people voted in the commissioner's race, and 2,142 people voted in the sheriff's race.

Moffat County has 4,548 registered Republicans.

Turnout for the 2002 and 2004 primaries -- a number that includes voters from both sides of the aisle -- was 25 percent and 32 percent, respectively.

Election official Lila Herod said turnout on absentee/early ballots, which finished at more than 1,000 votes, hinted at a large turnout at the polls Tuesday.

"We could just tell from those early ballots that it was going to be a good turnout," she said.

Election officials estimated that turnout would reach about 3,000 Republican votes.

Although the totals didn't meet that expectation, Herod said she was pleased that nearly half of the registered Republicans exercised their civic responsibility by voting.

While county commissioner candidate Tom Mathers and sheriff's race surprise Tim Jantz stole the headlines from the primary election, other candidates came away with momentum as well.

Big winners from Tuesday night's Republican primary were four incumbent candidates whom voters heard little from, or about, during the campaign.

Moffat County Clerk and Recorder Elaine Sullivan, Treas--urer Robert Razzano, Assessor Suzanne Brinks and Coroner Owen Grant won resoundingly -- each by more than 1,800 votes -- on Tuesday night.

Each of the four candidates, who are vying for their second terms, moves onto the November general election, where they're expected to have an easy path to office.

They, like Mathers, run unopposed.

Anyone interested in running as a write-in candidate has until Aug. 29 to file with the Clerk and Recorder's Office. Election officials said no one has filed as a write-in candidate since 1998.

"I would be very surprised if someone (filed)," Herod said.

However, while there haven't been many write-in candidates, that doesn't mean a candidate can't have some success.

The last write-in candidate, Don Krose, who campaigned against Buddy Grinstead in 1998 for the sheriff's office, received almost 2,000 votes on the general ballot. He narrowly lost to Grinstead, 2,102 votes to 1,967 votes.

Herod said Krose's write-in candidacy serves as an example that a write-in candidacy is difficult, but not impossible.

"What he did was an absolutely phenomenal accomplishment for a write-in," she said. "It was recognized statewide what he did."

For more information, call the Clerk and Recorder's Office at 824-9104 or visit it at the Moffat County Courthouse, 221 W. Victory Way.

Joshua Roberts can be reached at 824-7031, ext. 210, or jroberts@craigdailypress.com.