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Richard Piatt reporting Utah voters turned out in droves to cast a ballot in yesterday's primary. Some people had to stand in line for more than an hour. Today, people have mixed reactions to the results.
The Lieutenant Governor's Office says about 400,000 Utahns voted yesterday. That's a great turnout, and it resulted in a landslide victory for Mitt Romney in this state. But for his supporters, the overall results were a disappointment.
It was John McCain who won the most delegates last night. At the same time he pledged to go all the way, Romney was saying he will not drop out of the race. Mike Huckabee said the same thing.
It's also a very close race for Democrats that will be going on for weeks more.
The large turnout shows there is a lot of interest in Utah in the race for president. People have strong feelings about their favorite candidate.
"I was happy about Utah, at least. But I was disappointed in the national results. I'm not really a McCain fan," Romney supporter David Mackay said.
Clinton supporter Shilo Platts said, "I am sort of surprised that McCain is leading on the Republican ticket because you have the other two conservatives, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. You've got McCain who's a moderate liberal, and for a Democrat, if you have McCain the nomination, then it's a win-win. You'd either have a moderate or a liberal in office either way."
"I'm kind of disappointed in what Huckabee did. I think he should have dropped out, and the way things are looking, Romney is probably looking at dropping out, and I don't really want to vote for McCain," Romney supporter Bryson Huckstep said.
In fact, this college student said he would consider voting for Barack Obama rather than McCain. But he doesn't know what he'd do if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee.
Those kinds of reactions are typical around the state. Voters have strong feelings about a particular candidate, but many are considering crossing party lines if their pick for the nominee doesn't make it.
