This past midterm election showed one of the bigger turnouts for an election in Dallas County.

According to Dallas County Probate Office City Clerk Suzanne Ingram, Dallas County had one of its strongest turnouts for a midterm election.

In the only local race, Malika Sanders-Fortier defeated Mark Story 9,293-5,620 for the Alabama Senate District 23 seat. Fortier won with 62 percent of the vote, Story received 37 percent.

A total of 15,315 Dallas County residents voted in Tuesday’s General election. Dallas County has 31,770 registered voters. The number is higher than the 2014 midterm election, which 12,698 local residents voted in.

We commend Dallas County for turning out in almost record numbers to vote.

All the rallies and street side demonstrators encouraging people to vote have paid off, and we hope this momentum continues for all upcoming elections.

According to NPR, national voter turnout on Tuesday was “massive.”

“More than 47 percent of the voting-eligible population cast a ballot in the midterm elections on Tuesday, according to early estimates from the United States Election Project,” they said in a report.

“Voter tallies for the House races, as calculated by The New York Times, show that more Democrats voted than Republicans. That was expected, given Democratic outrage at the Trump administration. But the total increase in turnout, compared with 2014, held true for both parties,” according to the NPR report.

We hope that Dallas County will continue to exercise the civic right to vote. It is the most powerful tool we have, and this midterm election was a prime example of that.