Although hard-fought political races may not be great for community unity, they're apparently helpful to voter turnout.

Eric Bradshaw, temporary deputy director with the Lawrence County Board of Elections,

said that out of the approximately 37,800 registered voters in Lawrence County, 18,999 had their say in Tuesday's election.

That translates to a 50-percent turnout among the area's registered voters, which Bradshaw thought was pretty impressive.

&#8220That's a little higher than expected for an off-year election, but the state issues were on there, the school levies, the judges race a lot of things played into that, but it was a good turnout,” Bradshaw said.

The average is even more impressive considering a statewide average of 39.7 percent of registered voters turning out.

The election official said it was common for hot-button issues to drive locals to the polls, but he was still surprised the number wasn't higher.

&#8220It still amazes me that an election only interests half the people, even on a good one,” Bradshaw said.

There was little question in Bradshaw's mind however that the campaign for the judge's seat had a direct impact on turnout.

&#8220This is a complete opinion, but ‘yes,'” Bradshaw said. &#8220They had teams of people working hard (to get the vote out) Š on both sides.”

Although she admitted that it was a rough estimate at best, Lawrence County Board of Elections director Mary Wipert said on Monday that the expected turnout would be around 48 percent.