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Show . stwie ?ros8 0, Box 1327 -nlt take rJity, Utah Voters give strong backing to GOP initiatives, a mixed bag of proposals. County voters agreed with the results statewide five out of six times, and did not vary more than three percent from the final result in doing so. It was only on a minor proposition, one allowing for prison work release programs, where voters here By LEE WARNICK Record Editor The extent of Republican domination in the 1980 General Election may be even greater than originally thought. The elections were remarkable in several ways, not the least of which were the very high turnout, and the impressive mandate voters gave all Republican candidates but one. Unofficially, 7634 voted in the Presidential race. Early election ,t evening, County Clerk Clair Hulet said he thought the county had "about 7500 I registered voters." I Even allowing for a growth of 500 I from the figure Hulet reported, Iron County's percentage of registered i1 voters participating in the election would still approach a remarkable 95 percent. And, as was the case throughout the I nation, it was a Republican night in Iron County. In the 11 partisan races contested, Democrats claimed just four districts Incumbents score big The chart below shows how Iron County voters generally supported incumbent or Republican candidates can-didates by a wider margin than statewide counts. The first column lists percentages gained statewide by the winning candidate. The second reflects the Iron County vote, and the third the difference between the two. Utah IronC. Diff Dan Marriott 67 81 14 Jake Gam 74 '82 8 David Wilkinson 61 69 . 8 Ronald Reagan 73 80 8 Scott Matheson 55 62 7 Ivan Matheson 69 76 7 Val Oveson 59 64 5 David Monson 66 68 2 Edward Alter 64 65 1 R. Haze Hunter 69 67 -2 of 290 possible, with the exception of Gov. Scott Matheson's race,- or less than two percent. All four of those districts were in tiny Modena, which gave four Democrats, Art Monson, Moroni Jensen, James McConkie and Franklin Staheli a combined edge of 58-46. The only Democrat to escape the Republican purge was Matheson, who received solid 62 percent support from voters in his home county. He took 27 of the 29 Iron County districts, with only District Seven in Cedar City and New Castle giving a majority to his opponent, op-ponent, Bob Wright. Iron County voters typically backed Republican candidates, again with Matheson the only exception, with percentages higher than the state averages. (See related table.) The largest margin of difference was enjoyed en-joyed by Rep. Dan Marriott, who polled 14 percent more votes in Iron County than districtwide (81-67 percent). ' The only Republican to gather a lower percentage of votes in Iron County than district- or statewide, was Haze Hunter, who still gained two-thirds two-thirds of the county vote. YSen. Jake Gam was given the largest share, and number, of votes, with 82 percent and 6230. Marriott followed at 81 percent, with President-elect Ronald Reagan and running mate George Bush right behind at 80 percent. ; Interestingly enough, County Commissioners Dee Cowan and Howard Knight, both Republicans, ran unopposed. Still, 6166 "voted" for Cowan, while about 100 less, 6062, placed an "X" by Knight's name. Even though Iron County voters backed Republicans at a high percentage, per-centage, they voted remarkably close to state averages on propositions and disagreed. Statewide, the proposition passed with a 52 percent majority; in Iron County, 52 percent of the voters said "no". .Additionally, analysis of returns points to a problem which could well merit examination. Several returns came in late, well past 11 p.m., with election judges citing "heavy turnout" as reason for the delays. If turnout did not vary substantially from district-to-district, the County Clerk might seriously look at reapportionment reap-portionment of some districts. Cedar City's District 12 had just 156 ballots cast while the city's District Four had 657. The latter district was unable to report returns until well after 2 a.m. All in all, 10 of 11 Republicans carried Iron County, and the party amassed impressive vote totals enroute to those wins. Close on propositions Iron County didn't vary much from state votes on propositions and initiatives. In the first column below, the result from the proposition and the winning per centage is listed. In th second column is Iron Coun ty's corresponding totals, and the third column compares com-pares the two. Utah IronC. Diff. Exec. Reorg. Yes-53 Yes-56 5 Tax Art. Revis. No-54 No-54 Even Work Release Yes-52 No-52 -4 Leg. Pay Hike No-59 No-58 -1 Tax on Food No-56 No-58 -2 Prop. Tax No-55 No-58 - 5 |