How Boone County Fared in March Primary Election
Jeffery Lawhorn of Columbia watches election results on CNN at a watch party Tuesday for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Sanders campaign’s local headquarters, 15 S. Tenth St.
Bernie Sanders’ local supporters found solace on a bad night for their candidate in his victory in Boone County and, it seemed for most of the night, Missouri as well.
Volunteers filled the Vermont senator’s local headquarters Tuesday evening, watching as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took Democratic primaries in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. But in Boone County, Sanders received 60.6 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 38.7 percent.
That margin was similar to the 2008 result, when then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated Clinton with 60.5 percent of the vote.
Clinton eked out an apparent statewide victory of 1,531 votes, erasing a Sanders margin that earlier had been as much as 19,000 votes, or about 4 percent of the total, on the strength of solid victories in Kansas City and St. Louis. Vote totals for Sanders and Clinton were within 0.5 percent of each other, so Sanders may request a recount under state law.
The volunteers will not stop working, said Danielle Muscato, a spokeswoman for Mid-Missourians for Bernie, because the next step is electing friendly delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“We’ve got lots and lots of volunteers ready to do what we have to do to make sure progressive voices are represented at the convention,” Muscato said.
The Republican side was equally close, with businessman Donald Trump winning statewide by 1,726 votes over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. That apparent victory, also subject to recount, secured Trump 12 at-large delegates. Cruz scored a solid victory in Boone County and carried the Fourth Congressional District, earning its five delegates.
With all Boone County precincts reporting, Cruz had 43.9 percent of the vote compared with 30.9 percent for Trump. Ohio Gov. John Kasich garnered 14.5 percent, with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio trailing with 8.2 percent.
Boone County Republican Chairman Mike Zweifel said he’s not ready to concede that Trump will be the party’s nominee, adding that it will be difficult to stop him after victories in Florida, North Carolina and Illinois.
“He has half the delegates needed,” Zweifel said. “I don’t think it is over, but at the same time it is a lot harder for someone to beat him in the upcoming primaries.”
Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren counted 51,019 ballots, a turnout of 54 percent of active registered voters. The turnout and total are far more than the 41,903 counted in 2008, the last time both parties had nominating contests. The increase was all on the Republican side, where more than 10,000 new primary voters went to the polls.
The Democratic primary drew more than 1,000 fewer voters than 2008.
Throughout the day, the county clerk’s office had been deluged with calls from people needing to file a late change of address or complete their registration information, Noren said.
The primary will be followed by the caucuses that begin the selection of party members to fill delegate slots.
Boone County Democrats will gather at 7:30 p.m. April 7 for a countywide mass meeting at Gentry Middle School, 4200 Bethel St. County Chairman Homer Page said the local delegates to the Fourth Congressional District convention and the Democratic State Convention will be allocated based on the county result.
Boone County Republicans will meet at 10 a.m. April 9 at the Holiday Inn Executive Center under rules that will allow opponents of the winner an opportunity to elect their partisans as delegates. If the nomination is not settled when the national convention is held, the true allegiance — rather than the pledged allegiance for the first ballot based on the primary results — could become an important factor.
Each campaign that wishes to compete for the GOP local delegation must put up a complete slate of 45 delegates and 45 alternates and then turn out voters for the caucus.
“Any of the candidates can come and do that, but there have been some people talking about a unity slate of some sort, people who have helped out with the party for a long time,” Zweifel said.
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