About 23 percent of the registered voters in Clinton County took the time out of their schedule Tuesday to find their way to one of Clinton County’s 13 voting precincts to make their choice of candidates they preferred to represent their respective political party in this fall’s general election.

In the race that saw the most activity in Clinton County, the Republican primary for Kentucky Governor, the team of Jamie Comer and Chris McDaniel were the heavy favorites, winning all 13 precincts here by a heavy margin over the three other teams seeking that party’s nomination

The Comer/McDaniel finished local voting with a total of 1,358 votes to earn a huge margin over the next closest team of candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, Matt Bevin and Jenean Hampton, which finished in Clinton County with 106 votes.

In third place, Hal Heiner and K.C. Crosbie netted some 65 votes while Will T Scott/Rodney Coffey team picked up 28 votes across Clinton County in the primary.

Jamie Comer, the current Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture, who is from nearby Tompkinsville, built a strong base in Clinton County among Republican voters, as was evident not only in the number of Comer/McDaniel yard signs evident across the county, but in the margin of votes earned Tuesday as well.

Across the state, with Bevin appearing to hold a slight lead, late vote reports from central Kentucky time zone counties, moved Comer to within just a few votes, late Tuesday night, Comer had actually moved into a slight lead and appeared perhaps to have captured the Republican nomination, before a late reporting precinct put Bevin back in front by just a handful of votes, making it too close to call at press deadline.

With 99 percent of the precincts from across Kentucky reporting, Comer held a slight lead of only 30 votes, 69,680 to Bevin’s 69,650 votes, before moving ahead to hold a slim 122 vote lead.

Whichever GOP team finishes final vote tabulations in front and survives any possible recounts to win the republican nomination, he and his running mate will face Democrats Jack Conway, the current Kentucky Attorney General, and his Lt. Governor running mate, Sannie Overly, who won easily in Tuesday’s primary election both in Clinton County as well as across the entire state.

Here, the Conway/Overly team earned 128 votes from Clinton County voters to just 25 votes for the team of Geoffrey Young and Johnathan Masters.

Conway, who was considered to have only token opposition from the Young/Masters pair, spoke to his party to accept the victory just 18 minutes after polls had closed in the central time zone Kentucky counties.

Republican voters also had three other choices to make in Tuesday’s primary voting, including the race for the party nomination for Attorney General.

In that contest, Whitney Westerfield picked up the most Clinton County votes with 784 to 455 votes for Michael T. Hogan.

Across the state, with 85 percent of the Kentucky precincts reporting, Westerfield had also won the Republican nod, with more than 84,400 votes to Hogan’s 74,350 votes.

Westerfield will face Democrat Andrew Beshear, who was unopposed in Tuesday’s primary.

In the race for State Treasurer, Clinton County Republican favored Allison Ball, who earned 561 votes over two opponents, Jon Larson who finished locally with 375 votes and Kenneth Imes with 237 votes.

Ball also won the Republican nomination in state-wide voting over her two opponents, and will face Democrat nominee Rick Nelson, who was that party’s favorite in Clinton County earning 52 votes to just 30 votes for Neville Blakemore, 22 votes for Richard Henderson, 18 votes for Jim Glenn and 16 votes for Daniel Grossberg.

In statewide voting, with 97 of 120 counties reporting, Nelson was leading in that race and was projected to be the Democrat nominee.

In the race for the Republican nominee for Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture, Clinton County voters heavily favored Ryan F. Quarles who earned 765 votes over his challenger, Richard Heath, who finished here with 499 votes.

Across Kentucky, voting in that race was much tighter, with Quarles holding a narrow lead at press deadline.

The Republican nominee will face Democrat Jean-Marie Lawson Spann in the fall general election.

In the race for Kentucky Secretary of State, only the Democrats had a choice Tuesday, and it was Allison Lundergan Grimes, the incumbent, who received the voter nod both locally and statewide.

In Clinton County, Grimes picked up 127 votes over just 26 votes for challenger Charles Lovett.

In statewide voting, Grimes easily won over Lovett as well, and this fall will face Republican challenger Steve Knipper, who was unopposed in Tuesday’s primary election.

Tuesday’s election tabulation event in the office of Clinton County Clerk Shelia Booher, was one of the smallest election night gatherings in recent history, a typical occurrence when no local races are found on the election ballot.

The first precinct of the 13 county voting locations to report to the courthouse was South Albany, bringing totals in at 6:07 p.m., just seven minutes after the polls had closed, while the last precinct to bring it’s election materials into the clerk’s office was Piney Woods, who reported at 6:41 p.m.

Readers are reminded that all vote totals noted in this article are unofficial, as are the vote totals shown in the accompanying table.

Election Table