A turnout of Democratic primary voters that required Bell County to print extra ballots left party chairman Arthur Resa hoping the excitement of March will turn into local wins in November.

“I really think it will (carry over),” Resa said as he was still getting election calls at 11:30 p.m. Tuesday while remaining among the late-night hangers-on at the Bell County Expo Center. With a 5 a.m. start that morning, he admitted to being a little worn out but happy with what everyone involved agreed was a record turnout.

He said they have seen Democrats who had not voted in a long time who just feel energized and wanted to be a part of the process. They fielded many calls from people who wanted to know where to vote.

“I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to carry the momentum into November,” Resa said.

Where they will carry it will be limited, however.

“I wish that we had had more candidates on the ballot,” Resa admitted. “Last time we ran five candidates in Bell County. This time we were trying to be a little more conservative. …

“Now we wish we had more candidates.”

Locally, Democrat Sam Murphey will face the winner of the Republican runoff between Martha Tyroch and Ralph Sheffield for the District 55 state representative seat being vacated by Dianne White Delisi. The only other local Democrats on the Bell County ballot in November will be county commissioner candidates Phillip Anelli (who faces Republican incumbent Richard Cortese in the Precinct 1 election) and Gil Hollie (who faces Republican incumbent Eddy Lange in the Precinct 3 election).

Resa said the Democratic Party, which lost its last Bell County officeholder when Vada Sutton retired as county clerk following a stroke in 2005, is rebuilding locally.

Overall, Democrats cast 24,462 ballots this year, Bell County Election Clerk Jana Henderson said Wednesday. The Republican primary total ballots this year was 18,294. She said that the official records for previous primary elections were in storage, so she could not immediately say if this was a record number of Democratic voters.

Bell County Republican Party chairwoman Nancy Boston said she hadn’t had time to look precinct-by-precinct to check on turnout, but had heard that some local Republicans crossed over to vote in the Democratic Party race.

Even so, “it is one of the high turnouts that we have had,” Ms. Boston said of Tuesday’s GOP county voting. She noted that she has been tracking the party turnout since the 1990s and that the number of Republican primary voters has continually grown while the Democratic Party - up until this year’s primary - has decreased.

“Who could have anticipated the interest?” Ms. Boston said, noting that her precinct, No. 104, had to order extra ballots for the Republican primary Tuesday. There was interest in the four-way District 55 state representative race as well as the presidential races in both primaries, she said.

“It’s kind of a hit-and-miss game,” she said, adding “it would be a waste to throw away money” by ordering too many ballots because taxpayers have to pay for it.

“I think the county did a wonderful job being able to provide ballots,” Ms. Boston said.

Larry Cowan, an alternate election judge for a Democratic precinct in south Temple, said that he had never seen turnout like this on the Democratic side.

“We had a tremendous turnout at the primary and also at the precinct convention,” Cowan said, noting that the convention grew from seven the previous time to 149 this time. He noted that it was a big training and learning experience for just about everyone there, but it ended up with 17 Obama delegates and 10 Clinton delegates moving on to the county convention.

Cowan said he was happy to see the turnout, even though it meant more work.

Resa said that they would be analyzing and dissecting the election for weeks to come.

“The only thing I worry about, I hope this is not where we peak out,” Resa said.