Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum carried Shelby County and the state of Tennessee in the Tuesday, March 6, Republican Presidential primary.

And incumbent but suspended General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson finished a poor third in a Democratic primary battle for the clerk’s office that was won by interim clerk Ed Stanton in the closest contest of the night over County Commission chairman Sidney Chism.

And Republican Steve Basar won a close primary race over former commissioner Marilyn Loeffel for an open seat on the county commission.

Overall, 72,100 of the county’s 611,000 registered voters voted early or on election day for an 11 percent voter turnout.

The 48,842 Republican voters reflected the state verdict on the GOP presidential race.

With all 236 precincts reporting the unofficial vote totals for Shelby County were:

Santorum 18,260 or 37 percent

Romney 16,698 or 34 percent

Gingrich 9.393 or 19 percent

Ron Paul 3,838 or 8 percent

President Barack Obama, running unopposed in the Democratic presidential primary garnered 23,264 votes in Shelby County.

Just past 11 p.m. Tuesday evening, the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website showed Shelby County as the only county in the state with only its early voting results showing. With that in mind, the statewide totals showed a similar Santorum, Romney and Gingrich finish.

The statewide unofficial totals were:

Santorum 191,107

Romney 140,426

Gingrich 124,536

Ron Paul 46,585

Obama’s statewide vote total was 69,174.

In the four sets of local primaries, the five-way race in the Democratic primary for General Sessions Court Clerk saw Jackson finish a poor third.

Stanton beat Chism by less than 300 votes. Jackson was suspended by the General Sessions Court Judges following his indictment on official misconduct charges last year. Stanton was appointed as his interim replacement.

The unofficial vote totals are:

Stanton 8,422 or 37 percent

Chism 8,177 or 36 percent

Jackson 3,390 or 15 percent

Karen Woodward 1,430 or 6 percent

Marion Brewer 1,352 or 6 percent

Stanton faces Rick Rout in the August county general election. Rout, the son of former Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout, defeated James Finney in the GOP primary.

The unofficial vote totals are:

Rout 19,429 or 55 percent

Finney 15,463 or 44 percent

Meanwhile, Basar won the GOP primary for the Shelby County Commission District 1 Position 3 seat vacated last year by Republican Mike Carpenter. Basar beat Loeffel to advance to the August county general election where he will face Democrat Steve Ross who ran unopposed in the companion Democratic primary for the seat.

The unofficial vote totals are:

Basar 7,484 or 51 percent

Loeffel 7,182 or 49 percent

Tim Walton won the right to challenge Democratic incumbent Property Assessor Cheyenne Johnson in the August county general election by winning the GOP primary over Randy Lawson and John Bogan.

The unofficial vote totals are:

Walton 12,644 or 38 percent

Lawson 10,580 or 32 percent

Bogan 9,493 or 29 percent

Johnson had little trouble beating challenger Steve Webster in the Democratic primary.

The unofficial vote totals are:

Johnson 16,916 or 81 percent

Webster 4,032 or 19 percent

In the primary races for Shelby County District Attorney General, Republican incumbent Amy Weirich and Democratic challenger Carol Chumney each ran unopposed to advance to a showdown on the August county general election ballot.