Election judges from all 46 precincts in Natrona County have submitted their results to the county clerk’s office as of 9 p.m.

Two election judges said voter turnout was the highest they’ve ever seen.

“It was wonderful,” said Linda Sweeney, an election judge for the Dean Morgan Junior High School precinct, which has about 1,020 registered voters.

Of that number, 472 voted, not counting absentee ballots, Sweeney said.

“We had a lot of people we didn’t recognize, and young people voting and that’s good,” she said.

“I’m sure we had at least 50 percent vote; that’s huge,” Sweeney said.

People also were pleasantly surprised how well the process went at the Industrial Building at the Fairgrounds, where Dean Morgan and 13 other precincts were consolidate, she said. “That made us really happy.”

Voters lined up early, with about 150 of them waiting at the Industrial Building before the polls opened at 7 a.m. After that rush, the numbers of voters were steady throughout the day. But the crowds swelled beginning about 4:30 p.m.  to 6 p.m., said election worker Rob Hendry, who is a county commissioner. He was not on the ballot for this election.

At one point, the line stretched about 100 yards from the front doors of the Industrial Building, Hendry said.

Hendry and Sweeney said the poll workers and the election judges operating the computers were able to handle the crowds.

“When they got there they said, ‘oh my gosh we’ll be here for days,’” Sweeney said. “But they had shorter waits than they thought they would have.”

Over at the Senior Center at 1831 E. Fourth St., election judge Dan Grace said 407 of about 500 registered voters cast ballots in that precinct. That doesn’t count absentee voters.

“It was steady, it was nice, there was never a bad line,” Grace said. “A couple of times it bunched up.”

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