BOTH ALSO WIN MISSOURI PRIMARIES

Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush cruised to victory Tuesday in Missouri's first presidential primary since 1988.

With 97 percent of the vote counted, Bush led rival John McCain 58 percent to 35 percent in the GOP primary. Alan Keyes, had 6 percent of the vote.

Unofficial returns showed Bush had 273,257 votes to 166,256 for McCain

On the Democratic side, Gore was handily beating former Missourian Bill Bradley, 64 percent to 34 percent.

Gore had 166,527 votes to 87,418 for Bradley.

Secretary of State Bekki Cook, one of the leaders of Bradley's campaign in Missouri, said she had been resigned to a loss. "We Democrats now have our standard bearer for the fall," Cook said of Gore.

Southeast Missouri voters mirrored those statewide as they leaned heavily toward Bush and Gore.

Both Bush and Gore won in all 26 counties in the 8th Congressional District.

Gore defeated Bradley by a vote of 13,679 to 7,359 in the district.

St. Francois County provided both Gore and Bradley with their largest vote totals in Southeast Missouri. Gore garnered 1,316 and Bradley 1,147.

Gore's second biggest total in Southeast Missouri came in Cape Girardeau County where he received 1,206 votes.

Bush received 31,174 votes in the 8th District. McCain tallied 13,643.

In Southeast Missouri, Bush garnered the most votes in Cape Girardeau County. He received 5,458 compared to 1,708 for McCain.

In most regional counties fewer than one in four registered voters cast ballots. Only 9,790 registered voters went to the polls in Cape Girardeau County, a turnout of just over 21 percent.

Cape Girardeau County Clerk Rodney Miller said more voters may have turned out if the presidential candidates had campaigned in the region in the weeks leading up to the election.

In Cape County, a total of 7,608 Republican ballots were cast compared to 2,127 Democratic ballots.

There was an organized effort by local Republican Party leaders to get out the vote for Bush.

"We worked real hard," said Donna Lichtenegger, who headed up the Bush campaign in Cape County. She said she was disappointed by the low voter turnout and that many may have stayed home because political observers had suggested Gore and Bush had the nominations wrapped up.

"It was a good win for Bush, but I really thought we would do better in Cape County," she said. "We made around 4,000 phone calls to get out the vote."

She said many county residents seemed unaware that Missouri had a primary since the state hadn't held one for a dozen years.

Dr. Rick Althaus, a political science professor at Southeast Missouri State University, chairs the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Committee.

Althaus said the Democratic candidates mounted little of a campaign in Missouri and particularly in Southeast Missouri.

Like Lichtenegger, Althaus said the turnout was disappointing, but said primaries nationwide traditionally draw lower voter turnout than the general elections.

Missouri is new to the presidential primary process. That may have played a role in the low voter turnout, he said.

"Let's face it, Missourians aren't used to voting in the primary," he said.

Althaus wasn't surprised by Gore's victory in Missouri. "Most people were saying it was pretty much over even before the polls opened this morning."

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.