Gingrich tops Coweta vote, Romney comes in second

When it comes to which Republican candidate was the favorite in Tuesday’s Presidential Preference Primary Coweta County voters mirrored those from around Georgia, giving Newt Gingrich a solid win with nearly 52 percent of the vote.

Gingrich ended the evening with 7,828 votes (51.96 percent) compared to 3,171 (21.61 percent) for Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum taking 2,902 (19.97 percent) votes while 901 votes (5.86 percent) went to Ron Paul. The five remaining candidates on the ballot each got fewer than 25 votes.

In all, there were 18,612 votes cast in the primary that also included a successful vote on the continuation of the county’s local 1-cent sales tax. Voters in the Tuesday races translated into a 26.2 percent turnout of Coweta’s 71,046 registered voters.

Voting results statewide with 100 percent of precincts reporting showed Gingrich with 47.2 percent of the vote, Romney with 25.9 percent, Santorum with 19.6 percent and Paul taking 6.5 percent.