FARMINGTON -- Late Tuesday evening most residents of Davis County were at home watching the Presidential results on television. However, that was not the case for election volunteers and officials at the Davis County Courthouse who stayed past midnight counting votes and posting results.

In fact, for Pat Beckstead, county elections officer, and Steve Rawlings, county/clerk auditor, it wasn't "lights out" at the office until about 2 a.m., and back a short 4 1/2 hours later.

More than 77 percent of all registered voters turned out to vote in Davis County, giving this election one of the highest voter turnouts in years. Higher voter turnout also meant longer lines at the polls and extra time required for counting votes.

"I was shocked with the voter turnout. I've been involved with elections for 25 years and have never seen it as busy as it was today," said Shirley Bouwhuis, an election judge from Layton. "This year we got 49 absentee ballots when usually we get two or three. We couldn't breathe from 7 to 8:30 (a.m.). I believe the majority of the voters came between these times," she said.

The downtown Memorial Courthouse in Farmington was turned into a nerve center to coordinate the election and then count ballots, which started arriving after 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

For anxious candidates and others from the public, several TV monitors were set up in the County Commission Chambers as well as upstairs in Room 230, an old courtroom.

Besides the Presidential election there were many important issues on the ballot that caused Davis County residents to get out and vote. Kaysville had a vote on bonds for both a new swimming pool facility and a new library.

Both bonds failed to pass by roughly a 60-40 margin. Davis County Proposition 1, a bond for a new jail, passed by a narrow margin. County Sheriff Bud Cox was thrilled to see the bond pass.

"It looks like we're getting a new jail, that's great," said Cox.

Davis County Proposition 3, the controversial proposition to add fluoride to the water supply, passed by only 2,182 votes, making it the tightest vote of the election.

(See separate articles on the jail, fluoride, RAP tax and Kaysville bond issues.)

In addition to regular votes the county also needed to count provisional and absentee votes. There are 212 voting precincts in Davis County that are pooled into 90 voting locations. According to Davis County Auditor Steve Rawlings there were about 100 absentee votes and about 2,000 provisional votes cast in the county.

The new provisional votes were designed to give registered voters who went to the wrong precinct, or those who registered late and whose names weren't yet on file, a chance to vote.

In addition, one new county commissioner was elected, along with two state senators, several state representatives, school board members, and various judges.

Not surprisingly, nearly four in five Davis County voters marked their ballots for President Bush.

Another 73 percent of Davis County voters voted straight Republican line. In fact, the last Democrat to hold an elected office in Davis County was J. Dell Holbrook, who was defeated by current County Commissioner Dannie Mc-Conkie.