Casting ballots for tax issues, particularly a failed $107.8 million school bond proposal in Canfield, as well as the Republican primary, drove turnout in Mahoning County for the primary to a higher level than anticipated.

Thomas McCabe, Mahoning County Board of Elections director, said just a few days before Tuesday’s primary that he expected turnout to be under 20 percent because of voter confusion and anger over two primaries and a dislike of politics. He had said a month earlier, before the start of early voting, that turnout would be in the low 20 percent range.

Turnout for Tuesday’s primary in Mahoning County was 23.04 percent. Provisional and late-arriving absentee ballots are still to be counted, but those typically add about 0.1 to 0.3 of 1 percent to the final count.

“Canfield came out in droves,” McCabe said.

Turnout in the city of Canfield was 48.41 percent and it was 40.05 percent in the township.

The Canfield school district includes the city and township, as well as portions or all of 10 other precincts. There are two each in Boardman, Beloit, Berlin, Ellsworth and Green.

Overall turnout for the Canfield school bond issue was 43.63 percent.

The 6.9-mill, $107.8 million school bond issue received 28.22 percent support from voters.

A 1.63-mill Cardinal Joint Fire District additional levy, which includes all of Canfield city and township, was approved with 56.54 percent of the vote.

Also bringing out voters was the Republican primary that included races for U.S. senator, governor, secretary of state and the 6th Congressional District seat.

“Republicans outvoted the Democrats for the first time in like forever,” said McCabe, who is also county Republican Party chairman. “It hasn’t happened in decades. We think it’s possible it was the first time since the 1930s.”

Turnout was better in Republican strongholds than the county percentage. That included 30.89 percent in Beaver, 29.93 percent in Green and 29.63 percent in Ellsworth.

In Tuesday’s primary, 20,833 people voted in the Republican primary compared with 16,144 in the Democratic primary.

“We had to run more Republican ballots to almost all 70 polling locations,” McCabe said. “We had to print more ballots for Berlin, Canfield and Green.”

Republicans came close to Democrats in the 2016 primary that included a presidential matchup between Donald Trump and then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Several Democrats crossed over to vote in that primary.

But there were 36,887 votes cast in the Democratic primary in 2016 compared with 34,982 in the Republican primary.

TAX LEVIES

Turnout was high in Coitsville, 37 percent, where a 5.5-mill additional tax levy for police was approved with 58.06 percent support.

Turnout was also higher than the county percentage in Jackson with 30.08 percent and Milton with 29.73 percent. The Jackson-Milton school district’s 3.83-mill renewal levy was approved with 56.91 percent support.

Turnout in Lowellville, where a 4-mill additional school levy lost by 10 votes, was 25.49 percent — higher than the county.

It was also higher in Sebring with 25.76 percent. A 1.5-mill additional levy for roads in the village received 54.56 percent support.

Even though Campbell had two additional tax levies — for police and fire — and both passed by margins of about 3 to 1, turnout in the city was 22.14 percent. That’s lower than the county average.

Also a 2.8-mill additional levy in the Struthers school district, which passed with 53.33 percent support, didn’t bring voters in that city to the polls. In that city, 21.3 percent came out to vote.

The poorest turnout, by far, was in Youngstown, Mahoning County’s most-populous and most-Democratic community. Turnout in the city was only 13.45 percent as 5,285 of the 39,301 voters in Youngstown cast a ballot.

The second-lowest turnout in Mahoning County was in Austintown at 20.55 percent.

dskolnick@vindy.com