Thirty-six percent of Covington County’s 22,247 registered voters cast ballots in yesterday’s general election.

“This is an interesting turnout, considering we had no local races contested,” said Probate Judge Ben Bowden, who serves as the county’s chief election official.

Tuesday’s election drew more participants than the June primary, in which there were several hotly contested primary races.

“We had very little in June for the traditional Democratic segment,” Bowden said. “I think they came out today and that gave us a boost.”

Bowden said he couldn’t be more pleased with the way the election ran. All of the returns were in the courthouse to be tallied by 8:40 p.m.

“Our poll workers were outstanding,” Bowden said. “They had a long day, and had to count a lot of write-in votes. But basically, citizens run our elections.”

He also had high praise for members of the probate staff for their work.

In the only local race that was contested, Sen. Jimmy Holley, R-Elba, soundly defeated Democratic challenger Larry Greenwood, 23,022 to 8,568 in a district that includes Covington, Coffee, Pike and part of Dale County. Locally, Holley got 79 percent of the votes cast in that race.