Tracy voters bucked no state or countywide trends in

February’s presidential Primary Election, but voters turned out for Democrats

in far larger numbers than for Republicans, an unofficial analysis of election

results show.

Voters in neighborhoods across Tracy went for Hillary

Clinton over Barack Obama by 55 to 38 percent, only slightly off from San

Joaquin County as a whole, where Clinton beat Obama 56.7 to 36.3 percent. John

Edwards won only 3 percent of the vote in Tracy and 4.6 percent countywide.

On the Republican side, Tracy voters chose John McCain over

Mitt Romney, 55 to 38 percent, slightly closer than countywide results that

showed McCain beating Romney 56.5 to 36.3 percent. Mike Huckabee earned 13

percent of the vote in Tracy, compared with 14 percent countywide.

An unofficial tally of precincts in Tracy shows that 68

percent of Democrats turned out to vote, compared with 49 percent of

Republicans.

But San Joaquin County Registrar of Voters Austin Erdman

says what happened in February should not be used to predict results in the

November presidential election.

Though Democrats in Tracy have an edge in voter registration

— 12,272 to 10,039, or 55 to 45 percent — February’s primary rules greatly

favored Democrats.

That’s because those who declined to register with a

political party were allowed to vote for Democrats but were barred from voting

Republican in the primary. In Tracy, 5,099 voters declined to state a party.

Erdman also said news stories drove many of those

independent voters to the polls in the late afternoon Feb. 5, when reports

predicted that undecided voters in California would make the difference in the

Democratic primary.

At about 3 or 4 p.m., “we had a huge surge reported at the

polls,” Erdman said. “People who came in and said, ‘I want to vote Democrat.’”

Even a few Republicans asked to vote Democrat, but rules

prevented that.

“The news had a huge effect, and we saw this all over,” he

said, “not just in this county.”

Countywide, there are 245,7812 registered voters; 104,540

are Democrats, 98,088 are Republicans and 34,225 decline to state party

affiliation, according to the California Secretary of State’s office.