By MATT McLEOD

Thick crowds at Missoula County polling venues Tuesday often meant long lines and wait timesfor local voters. For Democrats it spelled major returns.As expected, when the Missoula County elections office released its final results earlyWednesday, Democrats scored a landslide victory locally. With the exception of RepublicanDenny Rehberg’s victory over Democrat John Driscoll, county ballots gave the party a cleansweep in statewide races.Missoula has long been a Democratic stronghold; the county has voted with a higher Democratic percentage than traditionally right-leaning Montana down the line in recent elections, and thisyear was no different.For a comparison of Missoula County to rest of the state in the last two elections click here.Allen Miller of the Secretary of State’s election department said early estimates of Montana’svoter turnout have the number around 72 percent.While the county is usually in the middle of the pack in voter turnout, Missoula County electionsrecorder Vickie Zeier estimated that upwards of 80 percent of registered voters went to the pollsTuesday. While turnout peaked at 86 percent in 1968, this year’s figure is a huge bump from2004 and should be among tops in the state.“It’s going to be right up there,” Miller said of Missoula’s showing.Here’s a look at the election in Missoula County by the numbers:Democrat Barack Obama carried 62 percent of the votes to Republican John McCain's 35 percentin the Presidential race. Democrats cruised to easy victories in both the gubernatorial and U.S.Senate races; Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer routed Republican Roy Brown by a 76 percentto 22 percent margin, while U.S. Senate candidate Max Baucus, a Democrat, captured 79 percentof votes to Republican Bob Kelleher's 21 percent.Democratic secretary of state candidate Linda McCulloch beat Republican Brad Johnson 63 percent to 35 percent.The attorney general race went to Democrat Steve Bullock, who took 65 percent of the vote toRepublican Tim Fox's 35 percent, while the state auditor contest went to Democrat MonicaLindeen who defeated Republican Duane Grimes by the same margin.Democrat Denise Juneau beat Republican Elaine Sollie Herman for state superintendent of public instruction, winning on 63 percent of the ballots to Herman's 32 percent.In the Supreme Court Chief Justice race, Mike McGrath trounced Ron Waterman, winning with77 percent to Waterman's 23 percent.