Baldwin County topped the state in voter turnout during Tuesday’s Presidential Preference Primary as 48 percent, or 8,624 of the roughly 17,900 active registered voters cast ballots in the largest single-day presidential primary in U.S. history.

“Voter turnout was exceptionally high,” said Probate Judge Todd Blackwell, who predicted that only 25 percent to 35 percent of the county’s active voters would participate in Tuesday’s primary election.

Across the state, Georgia voters participated in record numbers Tuesday. With 94 percent of precincts reporting, 44 percent of active registered voters cast roughly 1,966,600 votes in the Feb. 5 election.

“Georgians voted in historic numbers yesterday. Turnout in our state has been very low in past years, so it’s a very positive sign that so many Georgians made the time to exercise one of our most important rights,” Secretary of State Karen Handel said Wednesday.

We couldn’t agree more.

Georgians overwhelmingly chose Democrat Barack Obama while Republican candidate Mike Huckabee edged out rivals John McCain and Mitt Romney to call a peach state victory.

Obama, the junior U.S. senator from Illinois, carried the state over rival U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., by a near 2-to-1 margin while Huckabee’s walk to a win wasn’t as decisive, upsetting frontrunner McCain by just 2.6 percent, or about 24,000 votes.

In Baldwin County, voters who cast a ballot in the Democratic contest marched in lock step with the rest of the state, picking Obama over Clinton by a margin of 2 to 1, while Republican U.S. Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., grabbed just 110 more votes in Baldwin than former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee to take the county.

As fringe candidates fold their campaigns and frontrunners emerge as solid contenders for their respective party nominations, we’re pleased to see the field narrow. Now we look forward to some substantive debate on issues important to the nation, state and county.

We commend county elections officials and the dozens of poll workers for their management of Tuesday’s election amid record voter turnout.

This year’s presidential primary was the first statewide election to be conducted under Georgia’s requirement that voters show photo ID when voting in person, and the fourth election overall in which photo ID has been required for in-person voting.

Baldwin elections officials reported no problems with the photo ID requirement, which also comes as good news.

We see Tuesday’s turnout as an encouraging sign that Baldwin voters are serious about picking the next president to occupy the Oval Office. But we also urge our electorate to head to the polls again on Tuesday, July 15, for the state’s General Primary when primary contests for such elected offices as U.S. Congress, the state Legislature and County Commission will be decided.

According to the Federal Elections Commission, District 12 incumbent U.S. Rep. John Barrow could see a primary race. And after qualifying for state and county offices ends in April, we will learn which other incumbents will face re-election challenges from within their own parties.

We must keep the momentum of “Super Duper Tuesday” going and make our votes count.