Despite a much larger county-wide turnout than usual, Carroll County voters didn’t see eye-to-eye with their counterparts statewide during the Virginia presidential primaries held Feb. 12.

While Arizona Senator John McCain and Illinois Senator Barack Obama took the Virginia Republican and Democratic primaries, respectively, voters in Carroll County favored Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A total of 4,411 registered Carroll County voters cast ballots Feb. 12, with 2,405 Republican voters and 2,006 Democrats. By dividing the numbers of each primary into the total number of local voters, a spokesperson for the Carroll County Voter Registration Office said county turnout was 13 percent of registered Republicans and 11 percent of registered Democrats. Typically, only three to five percent of Carroll Countians cast votes in presidential primaries, the spokesperson said.

“It was larger than we expected. We were very pleased,” she said. “We wish everybody would have voted, but the ones that did vote kept our officials busy.”

Clinton, a Senator from New York and wife of former President Bill Clinton, took Carroll County in a landslide with 72.6 percent of the Democratic vote. Across the county, Clinton garnered 1,457 votes to Obama’s 494. Even though they had conceded prior to the Virginia primary, John Edwards (45 votes), Joe Biden (six votes), Dennis J. Kucinich (three votes), and Bill Richardson (one votes) each received a small level of support in Carroll County.

Clinton won each district in Carroll County by at least a 2-to-1 margin over Obama, with the biggest margin of victory coming in the Fancy Gap District (332 votes to 89). She also took Laurel Fork (341 votes to 113), Pine Creek (266-103), Pipers Gap (290-111) and Sulphur Springs (228-78).

Huckabee’s victory was closer than Clinton’s in Carroll County as he claimed 55 percent of the vote locally. A total of 1,322 Carroll County voters supported Huckabee compared to 975 for McCain, 56 for Ron Paul, 34 for Mitt Romney, 11 for Fred Thompson and 7 for Rudy Giuliani.

McCain has all but secured the GOP presidential nomination, but Carroll County voters saw it differently. District voting was fairly close, especially in Laurel Fork where Huckabee edged McCain by 26 votes (259 to 233). The rest of the county broke down as follows: Fancy Gap (Huckabee 296, McCain 205), Pine Creek (Huckabee 240, McCain 183), Pipers Gap (Huckabee 278, McCain 180), Sulphur Springs (Huckabee 249, McCain 174).