---

ATTLEBORO - A heated presidential race - on both sides of the party divide - has prompted far more local voters to cast ballots in Tuesday's primary than did so in 2000, the last time both parties had open contests for their nominations.

Compared to 2000, the percentage of registered voters who went to the polls Tuesday jumped by more than 10 percent in all eight Sun Chronicle communities for which comparable figures were available. Turnout was unusually high in the other two towns, as well.

Voter participation here rose to around 50 percent in some communities, and even the two towns with the weakest turnout had 30 percent of voters show up.

It was a record-setting day across the commonwealth. The secretary of state's office reported that 1.75 million Massachusetts voters cast ballots on Tuesday, shattering the previous record for turnout in a primary set in 1980, when 1.33 million people voted.

In 2000, by comparison, no community saw more than one-third of its voters come to the polls. The 2000 primary was the last time both parties had battles for their respective nominations, since President Bush was unopposed as the Republican candidate in 2004. "I think it's the largest primary that I've experienced," said Norton Town Clerk Diane Casagni, who has been overseeing elections there since 1982.

Mansfield Town Clerk Helen Christian agreed. "This was a big one," she said.

The highest turnout was in Norfolk, where more than half the town's registered voters - 53 percent - cast ballots on Tuesday, a 20 percent jump from the 2000 primary.

There was a similar spike in Foxboro, where nearly half the town's voters showed up Tuesday compared to about one-third in 2000, an increase of 17 percent.

Turnout also increased 17 percent in Mansfield, where 45 percent of voters cast a ballot. The same percentage cast a ballot in Wrentham, and in Norton and Plainville around 40 percent of voters went to the polls.

Rehoboth and Seekonk tied on Tuesday for the distinction of being the towns with the poorest turnout. Only 30 percent of voters cast ballots in the two towns, making them the only places where less than one-third of voters went to the polls. Turnout in the city of Attleboro was 34 percent.

North Attleboro passed the one-third mark, with 36 percent of voters casting a ballot, but it was also the town with the smallest increase in turnout - 11 percent - compared to 2000.

In total, 44,490 ballots were cast in Attleboro and nine surrounding towns, according to area election officials.

As has been the case across the country, a lopsided number of the ballots were cast in the hard-fought Democratic primary, in which Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York beat Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois both here and statewide.

The Republican winner here and statewide was former Gov. Mitt Romney, who quit the race on Thursday, effectively ceding his party's nomination to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Over all, 59 percent of local voters took a Democratic ballot. Wrentham was the only town where more voters took a Republican ballot (1,867) than a Democratic one (1,756), although the two parties were not that far apart in Norfolk and Rehoboth.