Primary election postmortem

Utahns spoke at the polls on Tuesday, giving incumbent U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon the Republican nomination in the 3rd District in his toughest intraparty challenge to date. Other incumbents, state lawmakers and one county commissioner, got the boot, for a constellation of reasons.

To add to the election-night drama, Tuesday's primary election marked the first large-scale test of Utah's new electronic voting machines. Election officials said the machines worked like clockwork, save a few problems during setup. Voters reportedly embraced the new technology. Even technophobes could be coached successfully through the process, thanks to the extensive training of election judges.

Election turnout was a mixed bag, though, with just over 8 percent of registered voters casting ballots in Salt Lake County. But in Utah County, more than 17 percent of registered voters turned out, which was impressive. No doubt many people turned out to vote in the Cannon-John Jacob race.

With Cannon winning 56 percent of the vote, the 3rd Congressional District race didn't turn out to be the barn burner that many pundits had expected. But it attracted considerable national attention from the news media and out-of-state special-interest groups, which viewed the race as a referendum on immigration reform. Out-of-state special-interest groups spent significant amounts of money on advertisements criticizing Cannon for his stand on illegal immigration, which largely parallels that of the Bush administration. Much of that rhetoric was diffused when Cannon was endorsed by President Bush. As Jacob quipped on election night, he not only had to run against an incumbent, he also had to run against the president of the United States.

While many outside groups chimed in on this race, credit Cannon and Jacob themselves for handling themselves in a gentlemanly manner. May others come to follow their example.

In other races, who showed up to the polls was every bit as important as the number of voters. For the first time in recent memory, a number of legislative incumbents were ousted. Rep. Peggy Wallace, R-West Jordan, lost by just 24 votes. Rep. Jim Ferrin, R-Orem, who faced criticism over conflicts in his charter school financing/construction business, was defeated by Orem City Councilman Stephen Sandstrom. Veteran Rep. Dave Ure, R-Kamas, who attempted to jump to the Senate, was up-ended by Vernal banker Kevin Van Tassell. Van Tassell was better known by Uintah Basin voters, which provided an advantage.

Incumbent sheriffs in Salt Lake and Davis County survived their respective primary races with Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard winning handily and Davis County Sheriff Bud Cox winning by a nose.

Now that the voters have spoken, the victors will regroup for the Nov. 7 general election. Hopefully, these results will spur greater interest when the polls open anew in a mere five months.