Voter turnout remained average as predicted by Eau Claire County Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary elections, Eau Claire County Clerk Janet Loomis said.

Loomis said there was no surprise when only 15 percent of the registered voters in the county voted. Only 8,599 voters out of the 77,988 eligible voters cast ballots in the Eau Claire County Tuesday, she said.

Loomis said the predicted voter turnout was between 15 to 20 percent, which is about average. She said the average voter turnout in the final election in November is around 55 percent.

“(In the final election) you are actually electing somebody there, where this was just putting a candidate forward,” she said.

City of Eau Claire Clerk Donna Austad said 10.6 percent of on-campus students voted yesterday, but wasn’t sure of the total number of on and off campus student voters.

Regarding student voter turnout, professor and chair of the political science department, Rodd Freitag said the percent of on-campus voters fit past averages.

“If you are looking into a mid September primary, you are not going to see a terribly high turnout among students,” he said.

Sophomore Dana Brunmeier said she didn’t vote in the primary, mainly because she said she hasn’t kept up with the news and is not interested in politics.

“(Students) probably don’t vote because they don’t get to know all the issues at hand,” she said. “Not all of us watch the news, which is sad, because we are all too busy with school work.”

Freitag said students should care about state and local elections because they affect them directly.

Senior Stacey Epping, who voted Tuesday, agreed with Freitag.

“With tuition increasing and lack of jobs, we need to have a say in who is being elected,” Epping said.

As far as State results, Scott Walker won the Republican primary for governor with 59 percent of the vote, while Tom Barrett defeated Tim John with 90 percent of the Democratic votes.

Democrat Ron Kind will face republican Dan Kapanke for the third district for the Wisconsin House of Representatives and for the Wisconsin Senate seat, incumbent democrat Russ Feingold will battle republican candidate Ron Johnson.

To increase student voter turnout, Freitag said politically active students need to reach out to their peers.

“If enough students have interest and are organized and active in informing and encouraging their fellows to vote, then you get high voter turnouts,” he said.

The midterm elections will be held Nov. 2. On-campus students can vote in Davies Center.