Callaway County voters Tuesday side with Trump, Biden

Voters trickled steadily into Fulton City Hall on Tuesday to cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential primary.
Voters trickled steadily into Fulton City Hall on Tuesday to cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential primary.

Callaway County voters favored Joe Biden and President Donald Trump during Tuesday's presidential primaries, according to the Callaway County Clerk's office.

Preliminary, uncertified results from the office showed 97.4 percent (2,580 of 2,657) of Republican-ballot voters favoring Trump and 61.6 percent (2,137 of 3,469) of Democrat-ballot voters favoring Biden.

With 6,165 ballots cast, turnout was lower compared to the 2016 presidential primary; only about one in five registered voters participated. In 2016, 3,095 people cast votes for the Democratic primary, while 7,545 voted in the Republican primary (10,677 ballots were cast in total).

At 11:30 a.m., when a Fulton Sun reporter stopped by the Fulton City Hall polling place, voters trickled steadily through the doors.

"We've been steady all day," said Denise Crosby, former Callaway County Clerk, who was working the polls at the time. "It's typical for a March election."

She added poll workers were taking standard disease transmission-prevention precautions, such as regularly washing their hands and making use of the hand sanitizer stationed on the table.

Four candidates aside from Trump appeared on the Republican ballot (though Mark Sanford and Joe Walsh had already withdrawn candidacy), but second-place candidate Bill Weld only received 20 votes.

As of press time Tuesday evening, nationally, Trump had received 985 of the 1,276 needed delegates to win the nomination, while Weld had received 1.

The Democrat ballot was much more contentious, with more than 20 candidates appearing. A majority of those candidates had already dropped out by Tuesday's vote; some never polled high enough to appear in an official Democratic debate. Notables still in the running as of Tuesday included Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard.

In Callaway County, Sanders received 1,099 votes (31.7 percent) and Gabbard, 47 votes (1.35 percent). Despite having dropped out, Michael Bloomberg got 57 votes; Warren, 54 votes; Pete Buttigieg, 18 votes; and Amy Klobuchar 17 votes. Several other candidates received votes in the single digits.

As of press time Tuesday evening, nationally, Biden had received 766 delegates, Sanders 618 and Gabbard two. A candidate must earn 1,991 delegates to win the nomination.

Because Missouri hosts open primaries, voters may choose which party's ballot they wish to fill out at the polling place. In addition to Democrat and Republican ballots, voters could also opt for Libertarian, Green Party or Constitution Party ballots.

Among the latter three parties, Libertarian Jacob Hornberger received 19 of 25 votes cast; Green Party candidates Howie Hawkins and Dario Hunter got one vote each (an additional two people voted "uncommitted"); and Constitution Party candidate Don Blankenship received seven of 10 votes.

The county clerk's office will certify the vote totals in the coming days.