Incumbent Tooele City Councilman Mike Johnson and longtime Grantsville resident Tom Tripp were the top vote-getters in their respective races for city council during Tuesday's primary election.

The election eliminated only three candidates from a field of 15, leaving six candidates to vie for three council seats in each city. The general election will be held Nov. 6, after which the top three vote-getters in each city will fill the seats.

Nearly 5,000 votes were cast in the two races.

Johnson and fellow incumbent Steve Pruden were easily the top two finishers in the Tooele City primary — Johnson with 24.7 percent of the vote followed closely by Pruden with 23.78 percent. Dave McCall finished third with 16.61 percent.

Pruden said the close race between he and Johnson — 750 votes to 779 — was expected because both are incumbents.

"Unless you totally mess up, incumbents usually don't get kicked out, at least not in the primary," Pruden said.

Johnson said, "The two incumbents were the leading vote-getters and hopefully that means people think we're doing a good job."

Teri Ellsworth, Shawn Milne and Richard Olson will also continue on to the general election.

The Grantsville race was even tighter than the Tooele one. Tripp received the highest percentage of votes in Grantsville's primary election with 15.57 percent, followed closely behind by Mike Johnson (no relation to the leading vote-getter in the Tooele race) with 15.52 percent, and sole incumbent Todd Castagno at 15.28 percent. Tripp and Johnson were separated by one vote — 266 to 265 — and Castagno was only four votes behind Johnson with 261.

Tripp said, "I think campaigns have been pretty low key to this point, and I think people who have been here longer have the advantage."

"I think it's good that the race was close,' Johnson said. "I like to see that more than a runaway. It just makes a better campaign."

Castagno said via e-mail he wasn't very surprised at the closeness of the votes.

"There were eight great people running and I think any of the eight would be great council members," he said. "It takes a lot for someone to be willing to run for office, to be willing to put their name out there and then be judged by voters."

Michael Colson, DeRay Sparks and Lynn Taylor will also continue on to the general election.

Both the Grantsville and Tooele primary elections saw poor turnout at the polls, according to Tooele County Clerk Marilyn Gillette. A mere 6.16 percent of registered voters came out for Tooele's election and Grantsville's turnout was only 11.78 percent.

'It was disappointing," Gillette said. "We would hope for more than that because elections are expensive."

The number of voters was down this year compared to the last primary municipal election in 2005, she said. In 2005, Tooele's municipal primary brought in a 16.75 percent turnout, and Grantsville's yielded 26.63 percent. However, the mayoral races were held in that year as well, and turnout is usually higher for those compared to city council, according to Gillette.

Gillette said many people during the primary election commented on the lack of advertising by the candidates.

"I think, at least in Grantsville, there weren't very many campaign signs up," said Tripp, who did place signs around town, "so I think the election kind of caught people off guard."

There were 112 absentee ballots sent out and when those, along with provisional ballots, trickle in they could have an impact on current standings, Gillette said, especially since voter turnout was so low and some candidates were separated by only a few votes.

Many candidates don't start heavy campaigning until after the primary, Gillette said, adding she hopes when voters return to the polls in November the turnout will be much higher, especially with the school voucher question on the ballot.

Johnson (Tooele) said having the school voucher on the ballot should bring out a lot more people that wouldn't vote otherwise.

"I would predict the November general election will probably generate a turnout closer to 35 to 40 percent," he said.

Until then, candidates will be campaigning in earnest to turn more of that expected turnout their way.

"I don't think there's been much discussion on issues yet," Tripp said. "I think that's still ahead of us."

Sarah Miley: swest@tooeletranscript.com