Tuesday's Marion and District 18 Election Turnout By the Numbers

Despite close to $1 million dollars spent on billboards, mailers, yard signs, TV and radio advertisements, this year's off-cycle election on Tuesday still couldn't match the turnout of the 2010 general election.

Last year's mid-term election had approximately 55 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots, according to Linn County Auditor documents.

This year's election, which was highlighted by the special election for senate seat, got less than half of eligible voters out, at 45.6 percent, said Eric Loecher, elections systems administrator for Linn County.

This reinforces a prediction Tim Hagle, University of Iowa associate professor of Political Science, made in a with Marion Patch.

"There is only so much the outside groups can do when there is this one small election," he said. "You probably aren't going to drive turnout that much."

Though it seems that the turnout for Tuesday's elections was low, it is actually very high considering previous special elections. Typically, an election that coincides with presidential races or mid-term congressional races enjoy participation levels of around 70 and 55 percent, respectively, Hagle said.

But Tuesday's election didn't take place on a national election year. The most comparable election to it is actually the 2009 Iowa State Representative District 33 election, a special congressional election that, like Tuesday's, took place on a national election off-year.

Tuesday's turnout blew away turnout in 2009. That year, only 9.54 percent of eligible voters cast their ballot, according to Linn County Auditor documents.

It's impossible to tell how much of the 36.06 percent difference was made by the expensive campaigns and national media spotlight, or other unknown factors.

For Nick Glew, a current Marion City Council member who lost in Marion mayoral race on Tuesday, said despite losing the election, the higg turnout is a unequivocally good.

"Anytime you have that high of a turnout it is a positive thing," he said.