Butler County results reflect statewide trend

Butler County voters turned out Tuesday to elect former vice-president Joe Biden and current president Donald J. Trump in the presidential primary.

Republicans saw more voter turnout than the Democrats. Of the 24,137 people registered to vote in Butler County, 3,042 voted Republican and 1,643 voted Democrat. About 19.44% of registered voters cast a ballot.

Biden received 60.68% percent of the Democratic votes with 34.33% going to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, according to the unofficial reports. Elizabeth Warren came in third with 18 votes or 1.1% and Michael Bloomberg followed with 13 votes or 0.79%. Both had dropped out of the race prior to Tuesday’s election.

Meanwhile, Republican voters overwhelmingly supported Trump with 2,998 or 98.55% of the votes. Joe Walsh, who is no longer running, received 15 votes or 0.49%.

In 2016, almost twice as many voters came out in the primary with 8,922 people casting a ballot in Butler County. At the time, 3,652 voted for Trump with Sen. Ted Cruz about 1,000 votes behind. For the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Sanders were neck-and-neck with 889 and 766 respectively.

Tuesday night, nine Butler County residents opted to vote for third-party candidates. Four went to Libertarian Jacob Hornberger, who is running unopposed.

The rest went to the Constitutional Party with Don Blankenship receiving four and Don J. Grundmann receiving one.

The local results are reflective of the overall Missouri results with 60.41% of Democrats voting for Biden and 96.97% of Republicans voting for Trump as of 10 p.m. Tuesday with 3,114 of 3,653 precincts reporting.

These are the unofficial results for Butler County as absentee ballots may not be in until Friday. Tonyi Deffendall said she only knows of one absentee vote that has not been received as of Tuesday night.