Election big deal in tiny town

RUSH VALLEY — Guy gets out of his pickup outside the fire station and sees a neighbor walking across the parking lot.

"So you did it, did you?" he says.

"It's a dirty job but somebody's gotta do it," the neighbor answers.

"If I'd known you were coming, I'd have stayed home," he answers back.

But, in truth, almost nobody was staying home on Election Day 2004. For proof of that, I give you the voting precinct in Rush Valley, Utah, where, of 309 registered voters, 83 of them showed up yesterday at the fire department to cast their ballots.

And that was before noon.

By the time the polls closed, 235 had voted, making it the most crowded election anyone in Rush Valley could ever remember.

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Rush Valley, by the way, is inaptly named. Nobody rushes. Rush hour in Rush Valley is when two tractors arrive at an intersection simultaneously. Something that hasn't happened since 1959. Located 20 miles southwest of Tooele on the way to the Dugway Proving Ground, less than 500 people live in a valley roughly the size of Delaware. Most live on farms, but as Joyce McAtee said, "Nobody farms and doesn't do something else . . . out here you either work for a government outfit or you're retired."

The valley was incorporated several years ago and has a mayor, a four-person City Council, a treasurer and a city clerk, who happens to be Joyce.

"It's a great place to live," she said, "lots of real nice people."

Almost all of whom made their way to the fire station yesterday to vote — and then moseyed over to the town hall next door for free coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, cakes and doughnuts.

"I came here to make the coffee at 7," said Joyce at lunchtime, "and I'm still here."

She recollected back to the last election two years ago, when the Rush Valley mayoral race was the big draw.

"As I recall, we had 59 people come to vote," she said. "Today we had that many come before they went to work."

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Gary Ostler, a longtime valley resident who is retired and works a 15-acre hobby farm in the St. John's area, was surprised when he showed up at the fire station at 9 a.m. and discovered a mob scene.

"There were two people in front of me," he said, "and two more behind me."

Yes, he thought about leaving.

"If there'd been any more of a line, I'd have probably gone home and come back," he said.

But he braved it out and performed his civic duty.

"It is a big turnout for us," he said. "I guess a lot of people are interested this year."