Birmingham Gives Mitt Romney a Big Win in Primary

Birmingham voters who went to the polls Tuesday overwhelmingly chose Mitt Romney to be the next Republican presidential candidate, with 69 percent voting for him in the Republican presidential primary.

In Birmingham, Romney garnered a total of 2,660 votes to 662 for Rick Santorum (17 percent). Meanwhile, Ron Paul came in third with 284 votes (7 percent) and Newt Gingrich came in fourth with 179 votes (5 percent).

; by 10:30 p.m., the Associated Press and NBC declared Romney the winner of the Michigan primary, while the Huffington Post named him the victor in Tuesday's other primary in Arizona.

City sees lower turnout than expected

Turnout at the polls Tuesday was slow in Birmingham and below City Clerk Laura Broski's expectations for the day. There was a 26 percent turnout in Birmingham, with a total of 4,215 ballots cast out of 16,360 registered voters.

Last week, . This was down from the 2008 presidential primary, which saw a 35 percent turnout citywide.

The reason for the sluggish turnout? Many election inspectors at all nine of Birmingham's polling precincts noted that traffic was slow but steady all day long, but with only one nomination up for grabs, many Democrats didn't vote.

In fact, only 345 Democratic ballots were cast in Birmingham on Tuesday, compared with 3,866 for the Republican ticket. President Barack Obama was the only name on the Democratic ballot.

Absentee ballots make up a third of the vote, give Gingrich help

Absentee ballots played a major role Tuesday; of the 4,215 votes cast, 1,495 were absentee — making that 35 percent of the total vote.

However, while the absentee vote followed many of the same voting patterns for the Republican candidates, it was the absentee vote that gave Gingrich a boost. Gingrich earned just 71 votes at the polls but 108 in absentee ballots.

In total, Deputy City Clerk Doreen Martin said the election went very smoothly Tuesday.

"It allows us to catch our breath before November," she said.

Complete election coverage

• For all the numbers and results, check out .
• For a look at the primary election in Birmingham, as it happened, check out our l.
• See all of Birmingham Patch's election coverage at the 2012 Voter Guide.