County voters showed their conservative side during Tuesday’s General Election, with about two-thirds of the county casting their votes for Republicans in a majority of races, according to unofficial election results released by the Surry County Board of Elections Wednesday morning.

And about two-thirds of registered voters in the county turned out to the polls, with 29,663 votes cast out of the 44,829 registered voters in the county. Those numbers reflect both early voting and those votes cast Tuesday.

Elections Director Susan Jarrell said Wednesday afternoon that while the turnout was high in the hotly-contested election, she thought more voters would have cast their votes.

“We’d actually expected it would be a little higher,” she said, noting that 66 percent cast their votes in the 2008 presidential election. This year, 66.1 percent turned out to the polls.

County voters overwhelmingly chose Republican challenger Mitt Romney for president, with the GOP hopeful receiving 67.68 percent of the county vote compared to incumbent President Barack Obama’s 30.86 percent.

And the count was similar when looking at the number of voters who chose to vote a straight party ticket.

Sixty-two percent, or 8,196 voters, cast their ballots for the Republican ticket, compared to nearly 36 percent, or 4,718 voters who voted straight Democrat.

During the 2010 General Election, 35 percent of county voters went for the Democratic ticket while 63 percent voted straight Republican. One percent voted for the Libertarian party, according to election records.

In the Sixth District House race, Republican Howard Coble handily defeated Democratic challenger Tony Foriest, with 66 percent of the vote.

The race for the governor’s seat also went to the conservative candidate, with 70.7 percent of the voters choosing Republican Pat McCrory over Democrat Walter Dalton, who received 27 percent of the county’s vote.

The lieutenant governor’s race also saw the county’s voters supporting Republicans, with Dan Forest receiving 65.6 percent of the vote compared to Democratic challenger Linda Coleman’s 34 percent of the vote.

Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929.