SUNBURY - Only 22 percent of registered Democrats and Republicans in Northumberland County voted in Tuesday's primary election.
The voter turnout, which was one of the lowest in recent history, was mostly attributed to the lack of municipal, school board and county races and various candidates who ran unopposed, according to Alisha Herb, director of the county board of elections office.
Only 11,013 votes were cast by the 25,276 Republicans and 23,297 Democrats who were eligible to vote in the primary election. During the last primary presidential election in 2008, 19,725 votes (41 percent) were cast.
According to unofficial election results, President Barack Obama received 3,061 votes (94.65 percent) in the 95 precincts of the county, while 173 (5.35 percent) write-in votes were cast for president.
Republican Mitt Romney received 3,153 votes (49.47 percent) out of the 6,374 total votes cast by county Republicans. Rick Santorum received the second highest vote total in the county among the four Republicans on the ballot with 1,536 votes (24.10 percent).
The first electronic voting machine from the first ward of Sunbury was returned to the Northumberland County Administration Center at 8:15 p.m., while the last machine from the polling station at Liberty Fire Company in Shamokin arrived at the center at 9:45 p.m.
Herb said an official count will be conducted Friday and Monday.