Santorum whips Romney in Vernon County
In an expensive election that few saw value in, Vernon County added its voice Tuesday to the non-binding Missouri Presidential Preference Primary and backed former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republiccan presidential nomination.
With only 1,102 of the county's 12,330 registered Republicans and Democrats, or 8.94 percent, casting ballots on the cold, rainy day, President Barack Obama received 187 votes, or 79.57 percent, over little known rival Democrats Randall Terry and Darcy G. Richardson, who got 10 votes each, and John Wolfe, who had four.
Santorum totaled 397 votes, or 46.1 percent, in the county's 17 combined voting precincts to Romney's 260, or 30.2 percent while Ron Paul picked up 121, or 14 percent, to Rick Perry's 15 votes, Michele Bachmann's seven, Herman Cain's five, Gary Johnson's two and Jon Huntsman's one. Former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia was not on the ballot.
Missouri's 52 Republican and 102 Democratic delegates will be apportioned in the March 17 party caucuses.
Vernon County Clerk Tammi Beach said it was probably more the non-binding nature of the election than the bad weather that had kept 91.06 percent of the county's voters away. "A lot of people didn't think this election mattered because of the caucuses," Beach said just before the polls closed at 7 p.m.
"So many people don't even know Missouri has a primary."
Beach said she and other elected officials had prevailed on the Missouri General Assembly to cancel the vote -- the only thing on Tuesday's ballot -- because it would cost more than $7 million statewide and $30,000 in Vernon County alone.
"Can you imagine how much that will be per vote?" she asked. "If we have 1,600 votes here, it will cost $18.75 per vote. We tried as elected officials to get the legislators to do away with it and they wouldn't do it.
"It's a sad day -- waste in the government."
Glad you voted!