The Selma Times-Journal

Voter turnout in Dallas County was high on Super Tuesday.

They ran out of ballots at the Orrville Community Center. Just after lunch the turnout at the Broad Street Fire Department was twice as high as in previous years &8212; same for the Dallas County Courthouse Poll workers were reporting a steady turnout all day.

By 5 p.m., two hours before the polls closed, there had been 648 total votes cast at the Cahaba Road Fire Station. There were 652 votes cast there in the June 2006 primary election.

According to the unofficial canvass, with 31 of 32 precincts reporting, 42 percent of the registered voters in Dallas County went to the polls. There were 12,550 votes cast in Dallas County on Tuesday, or 42 percent of the registered voters going to the polls. The provisional ballots will be canvassed later this week, election officials said.

Republican voters turned out in higher numbers. There were 3,369 members of the GOP to cast ballots in the Tuesday primary. In the June 2006 primary there were 451 Republican ballots cast. (See related story.)

Herman Majors has been the chief inspector at the Orrville Community Center for the past 25 years. What happened just after 12 noon Tuesday was a first.

The Dallas County Probate Judge&8217;s office was called and they sprung into action. Majors said some people voted Republican, and the Democrats didn&8217;t have to wait long. It was less than 45 minutes, but several who came to vote during their lunch hour had to leave and come back after work.

In the June 6, 2006, primary election, there were 29,580 registered voters in Dallas County. As of Feb. 1 there were 29,948 registered voters. There were 12,811 ballots cast in the 2006 election, or 43.3 percent voter turnout.

In 2006 there were 236 ballots cast at the Courthouse. By 4:45 p.m. there had been 177 ballots cast, with more than two hours before the polls closed.