Elections with mayoral races tend to draw more voters than other years, but that wasn’t true this year in Boise.

About the same percentage of registered voters — 16 percent — participated in Tuesday’s election as in the council-only election in 2009. When Mayor Dave Bieter beat Jim Tibbs in 2007, turnout was about 30 percent.

Turnout in Meridian was up this — about 25 percent, compared with 5 percent in 2009 and 17 percent in 2007.

Canyon County turnout was about 15 percent.

Exact numbers for Nampa and Caldwell won’t be available until Thursday. Several small Canyon County towns, particularly Melba and Wilder, skewed the countywide turnout slightly by posting unusually high percentages, Deputy County Clerk Brad Jackson said.

In Melba, the county’s smallest city with 513 people, 215 of the 250 registered voters cast ballots — an 86 percent turnout that ousted Melba Mayor Martin Luttrell, who came in second in a four-way race. Winner Doug Sturges took nearly 45 percent of the vote.

In Ada County, the highest turnouts were in smaller cities with contentious races.

Here are Ada County turnouts (voters who registered the day of the election aren’t yet tallied and could change final numbers slightly):

Æ Boise: 16 percent (17 percent in 2009).

Æ Meridian: 24 percent (5 percent in 2009).

Æ Eagle: 29 percent (20 percent in 2009).

Æ Kuna: 33 percent (21 percent in 2009).

Æ Star: 33 percent (39 percent in 2009).

Katy Moeller: 377-6413